Best Ice Cleats for People With Arthritis and Other Disabilities

Why Ice Cleats are So Difficult to Use for People with Disabilities

Ice cleats that stretch over shows and boots can be difficult to put on and take off if you have a disability affecting your hands and fingers like arthritis.

Most ice cleats need to be removed before going indoors.

• Aggressive Spikes
  • will damage most floors; and
  • become slippery on hard, smooth surfaces like tile.
• Spikeless ice cleats with wound steel coils won't damage most floors but are extremely slippery on smooth surfaces. If the wound coil is broken, it can catch on a rug causing you to trip or damage the rug.

Therefore, using ice cleats is impractical for people with disabilities especially if you frequently go in and out of doors.

If your disability doesn't affect your hands and fingers but instead affects your ability to bend or your balance, you're dependent upon someplace to sit down to remove and put your ice cleats back on. Not every business has a bench in the front.

Features Especially Important to People with Disabilities

All the recommendations have the following exclusive patented features especially important to people with arthritis and other physical problems affecting fingers and hands.

Ice Cleats That Provide the Best Traction May Not Be the Solution for Many People with Disabilities

People with disabilities are often terrified of slips and falls on ice. Their disability is often the result of a winter fall. The last thing many people can afford is to re-injure their back, knee, or re-break a hip.

The bad news is that I can't guarantee you won't slip and fall on ice. No one can make that guarantee regardless of the ice cleats you choose. All I can do is everything possible to lower that risk.

The best ice cleats to reduce your risk of slipping on ice are HIGH-PRO Ice Cleats.

HIGH-PRO gives you excellent traction on all slippery winter surfaces including

• ice;
• packed snow
• loose snow
• slush; and
• black ice.

But you have to take them off before you go indoors because the 2mm spikes will damage floors and, depending on the type of floor, be slippery.

If going in and out of doors isn't a problem for you, consider getting Winter Walking HIGH-PRO Ice Cleats and just letting them on a pair of boots or shoes.

Transitional Traction Ice Cleats are the Solution for Most People with Disabilities

• 1mm studs instead of 2mm studs that minimally protrude beyond the tread. You can wear them on most indoor floors because of both the studs, and the treads make contact with the surface; and
• they provide better traction on sewer grates, utility hole covers, smooth stone or brick walking surfaces found in cities, and when entering and exiting mass transit.

But there's a compromise. 2mm spikes are better because they have a better chance of making contact with the ice especially when there's a thin layer of snow on top of the ice. I would rather see you wearing 2mm spikes on steep icy sidewalks or extremely icy steps. Do the 1mm spikes work in these conditions? Yes. But 2mm spikes are better.

Having said that, the 1mm tungsten carbide spikes are well-positioned and work well. So, if you can't wear HIGH-PRO Ice Cleats, choose LOW-PRO Ice Cleats. LOW-PROs provide the best possible traction for people who not otherwise use ice cleats because of their physical limitations. You need ice cleats to keep yourself safer on ice.