How to Talk With a Customer Who Uses a Wheelchair

Why this matters

Most techs who get this wrong are trying hard to be polite. They talk to the daughter because she answered the door. They stand over the customer for a twenty-minute walkthrough because kneeling feels presumptuous. They slide the chair six inches to reach the cabinet, the way they would move a kitchen stool. None of it is meant badly, and all of it tells the customer that this visit is happening around them rather than with them. On an accessibility job specifically, it also costs you the information you came for: the person who uses the chair is the only one who knows how they actually move through the house.

Physical courtesy at the visit (parking off the ramp, clearing paths, leaving the house as they need it) is already covered: see related, Serving Customers With Mobility Disabilities at Home. This article is the conversation: the words, where you put yourself while you say them, and the points in a visit where it usually goes wrong: the greeting, the moment you need the chair moved, and the paperwork at the end.

Step 1: Speak to the person, from the first sentence

Introduce yourself to the customer, not to whoever is standing nearest the door. If a family member or aide answers, greet them, then turn to the customer and address the rest of the visit to them. Ask questions of the customer and wait for the answer, even when someone else in the room starts to answer for them.

This is not about manners. The person who opened the door is usually not the person who uses the bathroom at 3 a.m. If the companion answers a question you asked the customer, turn back to the customer: "Is that how it works for you?" It is the shortest way to put the conversation back where it belongs without correcting anybody.

If the customer communicates differently (speech affected by a stroke or by cerebral palsy, a communication device, an interpreter), the same rule holds. Speak to them, not to the interpreter. Give them time to finish; do not finish their sentences. If you did not understand, say so and ask them to repeat it, rather than nodding along and guessing.

Where a family member is genuinely part of the decision, that is its own conversation: see related, How to Scope a Job With the User and a Family Member Present.

Step 2: Get to eye level for anything longer than a quick exchange

Standing over someone for a long conversation means they spend it with their head tipped back, and it puts you physically in charge of the talk. For a quick "I'm heading to the basement now," standing at a comfortable distance is fine. For anything longer, sit.

• Sit, do not crouch. Pull up a chair, or sit on a step or a stool, so your eyes are at about the same height. Squatting or crouching in front of a wheelchair reads like talking to a child, and nobody can hold a crouch through a fifteen-minute scope.
• Mind the distance. If you cannot sit, step back a few feet so the angle is easier on their neck.
• Ask, if you are not sure. "Do you mind if I grab a chair so we can go through this?" Most people say yes. A few prefer you stand, and asking lets them tell you.

Step 3: Treat the chair as part of the person

A wheelchair, a walker, a cane or a scooter is part of the person's body space. Leaning on it, resting a hand or a clipboard on it, or hanging a tool bag from the push handles is the same as leaning on the person.

• Ask before touching it, every time, including to move it a few inches.
• Never move a mobility device out of the person's reach. If they have transferred to a sofa or a bed and you need the chair moved, ask where they want it, and put it back within their reach before you leave the room. A person whose chair is across the room is stranded until somebody comes back.
• Never touch the controls of a power chair. Even to nudge it. If it has to move and they cannot drive it there, ask them how they want it done. Some have a freewheel mode a caregiver uses; that is their decision and their instruction.
• Do not push a manual chair unless asked, and then ask where to and how fast. Tell them before you tip it back over a threshold.

Step 4: Ask how they do things, not whether they can

This is where the scope comes from. "Can you reach that shelf?" gets a yes from a proud person who reaches it by pulling themselves up on the counter edge. "How do you get to the things on that shelf?" gets the real answer.

Questions that work on an accessibility visit:

• "Show me how you get from your chair to the toilet now." Watching once beats any description.
• "Which side do you transfer from?" It sets where a grab bar goes and which way a toilet sits; see related, How to Set a Toilet for the Way the Person Transfers.
• "What's the hardest thing in this room?"
• "When you're tired, at the end of the day, what changes?" A person's function at 9 a.m. and at 9 p.m. can differ, and the install has to work at 9 p.m.
• "Is anything getting harder than it was a year ago?" This is how you find out about a progressive condition without asking for a diagnosis; see related, Designing for a Progressive Condition.

Never ask what is wrong with them. You need to know how they move, reach and grip, not why. If they tell you, listen; if they do not, the function is all the scope needs.

Step 5: Watch the words, briefly

A few habits make a tech sound like they have done this before:

• Say "uses a wheelchair," not "in a wheelchair" or "wheelchair-bound." The chair is how they get around, not a place they are confined to.
• Follow the person's own language for their disability. If they say "I'm a para," that is their word to use about themselves.
• Ordinary words are fine. "Walk me through it" and "let's go see" are normal English, and wheelchair users use them too.
• Do not praise ordinary tasks. Telling someone it is inspiring that they made coffee is the fastest way to lose them.

Step 6: Bring the paperwork and the payment to them

The visit ends with a signature and often a card. Do not hand a tablet down from standing height or ask them to come to the kitchen counter.

Bring the estimate, clipboard or tablet to them at a height they can use from the chair, and hold it steady if they want it held. Bring the card reader to them. If they have limited hand function, ask how they usually sign or pay; many have a method, and some will want a family member to do it while they direct. That last part is their call, not the family member's.

Worked example: a faucet call that became a kitchen scope

A plumber is sent to replace a kitchen faucet that the customer can no longer turn. She uses a manual wheelchair; her husband lets the tech in.

HUSBAND:  She can't work the handle anymore. Just put in
          whatever's easiest.
TECH:     (to the customer) Hi, I'm the plumber. Can I
          grab a chair and you show me what's going on?
CUSTOMER: Sure. It's the knob. I can't twist it.
TECH:     Show me how you'd turn it on now.
CUSTOMER: (pulls up, leans in, reaches across) I get my
          left arm on the counter and push up. Then I
          can barely get it.
TECH:     So the reach is part of it too, not just the
          twist.
CUSTOMER: The reach is most of it.
TECH:     I need to get under the sink. Is it OK if I
          ask you to back up, or would you rather I
          wait?
CUSTOMER: I'll move. Just tell me when you're done.
          (later)
CUSTOMER: Could you help me onto that stool so I can
          watch?
TECH:     I'm not trained to lift, and I don't want to
          drop you. Would your husband help, or should I
          wait while you get set?
CUSTOMER: He'll do it.

What that conversation produced, which the work order did not say:

• The problem is reach plus twist, not twist alone. A single lever handle mounted at the back of the sink solves the twist and leaves the reach. A faucet with its control on the side nearest her, or a touch-operated faucet, solves both. The tech quoted the side-control option and flagged that a touch-operated one was available if she preferred.
• The leaning is a fall risk. She is pulling up on the counter edge to reach. The tech noted it on the job for the office to offer a kitchen assessment; see related, Kitchen Changes That Help Most.
• She chose to move herself, and the tech asked rather than moving her or her chair.
• The transfer request. Lifting or helping someone transfer is not part of a plumber's job and you are not trained for it; the injury risk runs both ways. Decline it plainly, offer the alternatives, and do not make it awkward. If nobody is there to help and she wants to move, wait.

Notice also what the tech did with the husband's opening line. He was not corrected. The tech simply turned to her and asked her, and he followed the conversation there.

The tech's note on the job, so the next person in the house starts where this one ended:

• Customer uses a manual chair, transfers from the left, does not want her chair moved without asking.
• Reaches the sink by pulling up on the counter edge; offered a kitchen assessment.
• Husband helps with transfers; ask her, not him, about the work.

What changes the approach

A customer who is non-speaking or uses a communication device. Allow much more time per question, ask questions they can answer briefly, and never let the companion answer for them by default. Ask the customer how they want to communicate, and use that.

A customer with cognitive changes as well. How you pace and simplify, and when a decision needs someone else involved, belongs to the Safeguarding group: see related, Working in the Home of a Customer With Dementia and Capacity to Contract: The Signs and What to Do. Do not decide capacity from the wheelchair.

A customer in pain or tired. Short visits, more of them. Ask at the start how long they are up for, and stop before that.

References

• See related: Serving Customers With Mobility Disabilities at Home; How to Scope a Job With the User and a Family Member Present; The Accessibility Walkthrough With the Person Who Lives There.
• See related: Service Animals and the Tech in the Home; Kitchen Changes That Help Most; How to Set a Toilet for the Way the Person Transfers.
• See related: Working in the Home of a Customer With Dementia; Capacity to Contract: The Signs and What to Do.