Drive Team member in Wheelchair

VEX Robotics Competition Discussion
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So, I got surgery on my hip about a week ago, and it will take quite a while to recover. I most likely will still be in a wheelchair when competitions are being held. Is there anything special I would need to do, or can I just be in a wheelchair as a drive team member with no problems? I couldn’t really find any others asking about this, so yea…

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Depends on your competition, but I believe it’ll be fine.

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One of my drive team members is too, there shouldn’t be any problems. Most competitions (especially public schools) are pretty accessible. Of course, you will want two others to carry the bot, pump, controllers,etc.

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Might it be easier to have the one in the wheelchair hold the robot and the other two push him? I haven’t bee tied to a wheelchair, but it seems easier to me.

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As long as someone is pushing the wheelchair, yea. I wouldn’t trust myself with a robot in my lap while I’m wheeling myself around. It’d probably fall.

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Yes, I wouldn’t either. But it seems easier for everyone to have someone push the wheelchair and have the person riding hold the robot.

  • The wheelchair person doesn’t have to move the chair.
  • The other people don’t have to carry the 10-pound metal robot.
  • The robot is not up in the air.
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There’s a team in my division who’s in a wheelchair. Her partner pushes her around while she carries the robot. She’s able to either stand for short periods to drive or drive from the wheelchair

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Make sure that you coach lets the competition know that you are in a wheelchair so that they can make sure that there is a route to and from the fields that will accommodate a chair. Ideally, every competition would be ADA accessible already but I’ve definitely been to a few where some things would need to be re-arranged to make sure a chair can get where it needs to go.

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This absolutely! We have a member with a wheelchair and just letting the EP/Person Running the event helps so much. We were able to get a closer table to the fields which made maneuvering the chair so much easier!

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You might have some trouble with raised fields. If you think that can be an issue, you may want to only attend events without raised playing fields.

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For instance, don’t go to my region’s championship or Worlds? You might want to figure out how to deal with them.

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By the time worlds or even states happen, I will most likely be out of the wheelchair. I can also just use a walker to stand up by the field.

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If the condition lasts long enough that it may be an issue. I was mainly referring to local tournaments.

I recall that there was a Q&A from a previous game where a coach asked if his/her very short students could stand on small, wide stools to be able to even see the field. The answer was no. There are also a few threads discussing such issues. I even remember this post:

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