Using a cane, wheelchair, or walker
You should let your physician know if you believe that you need a cane, walker, or wheelchair. You should try your best to obtain a prescription for the assistive device from your health care provider. Even a simple notation from a qualified medical professional that states your assistive device is medically necessary can suffice. In my experience at hearings before an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ), the ALJ may not be convinced that you need an assistive device if you obtain it on your own from a pharmacy or relative. The use of a cane can prevent a worker from performing heavy, medium, light, and even sedentary work as it is normally performed in the general economy. Even in sedentary desk jobs such as those common in the administrative, secretarial, assembly, and customer service fields require workers to be able to stand and/or walk two hours out of an eight hour day in addition to sitting for six hours out of an eight hour day. This is because even jobs that...