It is well known that wheelchairs which are well maintained suffer breakdowns less frequently, and their users are less likely to be injured. But until recently, there was no widely known wheelchair maintenance training program. Our team recently developed the wheelchair maintenance training program (WMTP) that we used to train clinicians on how to train wheelchair users in an in-person format, but was difficult to scale due to the in-person nature of the training.

This manuscript presents the development of the online version of the WMTP program and compares learning results from the in-person and online program using the wheelchair maintenance training questionnaire (WMT-Q).

The training program was well received and valued by participants all 22 participants. A significant increase in all scores after online training program was found: manual wheelchair open-ended questions, t(25)=−3.367, P<0.05; power wheelchair open-ended questions, t(25)=−5.360, P<0.05; multiple choice questions related to knowledge, t(25)=−6.368, P<0.05; confidence, t(25)=−13.521, P<0.05; and capacity, t(25)=−10.735, P<0.05. There were no statistical difference in WMT-Q scores between individuals who participated in the in-person and online participants: knowledge: t(34)=0.371, P=0.185, capacity: t(34)=0.540, P=0.793.

Our results suggest that there was a similar trend of increased knowledge for participants in both training programs indicating that web-based training is a viable avenue for delivering maintenance training.