Ride Certification Course

Who should attend?

This two-day training program is designed for health care professionals (PT, OT, ATPs, etc.) and suppliers who are directly involved in the recommendation and provision of wheeled mobility and seating products.

This course is designed to educate therapists and rehab technology suppliers in both traditional and orthotic and prosthetic influenced approaches to wheelchair seating. 

Successful course completion of both days is required to become a Certified Ride Custom Systems Practitioner or Supplier.

General Information

This comprehensive wheelchair seating course will sharpen your skills regardless of the amount of experience you have. Even the most basic principles are presented in a new and compelling fashion. You will be challenged to reconsider how you think about postural control and skin care in the seated posture.

No matter what population you serve, you are bound to discover some refreshing concepts and strategies to better address your clients’ needs.

Ride Designs and Aspen Seating incorporate a healthy dose of orthotic and prosthetic principles that give their products and services unique advantages over traditional seating options. No longer are you forced to choose between aggressive postural support and skin care as our approach tackles both issues without compromise. Ride Designs’ seating systems utilize a blend of orthotic, prosthetic and traditional seating approaches to provide lightweight, breathable, adjustable, seating systems unlike anything available in today’s market.

Enrollment is limited to guarantee everyone individualized attention. Well-structured hands-on activities with actual wheelchair users will foster the confidence needed to transfer what you have learned into your practice.

 Course Objectives

• Identify 3 postural tendencies in sitting.
• Define an early intervention seating strategy for each of the 3 postural tendencies.
• Determine if a postural deviation is fixed or if it may still respond to proper intervention.
• Identify in-wheelchair interventions to inhibit/reverse the destructive effects of long-term sitting.
• Understand the importance of 24-hour postural care and identify the need for out-of-wheelchair interventions to inhibit/reverse the destructive effects of long-term sitting.
• Differentiate traditional seating from the use of orthotic and prosthetic based seating principles and wheelchair set-up to address pelvic control and postural correction to counter destructive postural tendencies and skin protection.
• Identify at least four reasons the mat evaluation is necessary to determine orthopedic status including trunk flexibility, tolerance of correction of abnormal curvature, and control for neurological condition.
• Describe the chief causative factors implicated in the development of sitting related pressure ulcers.
• Differentiate between immersion and off-loading approaches of wheelchair cushion design.
• Describe three negative effects of heat & moisture at the wheelchair sitting interface.
• List four important factors that contribute to an appropriate fit of an orthotic style custom cushion and back.
• Demonstrate how to modify an orthotic-style cushion to increase bony clearance/off-loading and how to ensure safe tissue support at loading surfaces.