wheelchair

A wheelchair is a chair on wheels for someone who cannot walk, or cannot walk far. Two big wheels you push by the rims, two small ones at the front, brakes beside the seat — or an electric one with a joystick on the armrest.

The words around it matter more than usual here. Say wheelchair user, or someone who uses a wheelchair; confined to a wheelchair and wheelchair-bound are tired phrases and disliked by the people they describe, because the chair is what gives them freedom to move. As a modifier it runs right through the language of access: wheelchair access, a wheelchair ramp, a wheelchair space on a train, wheelchair basketball. You travel IN a wheelchair, never on one. And the heavy hospital sort that somebody else pushes is the same word as the light racing frame built for a marathon.