In the US, a person’s wheelchair is viewed legally as an extension of their body.
1. If you touch someone’s wheelchair without their consent, that is Assault. In some states, this is automatically Aggravated Assault because the assault has been committed against a disabled person.
2. If you grab a someone’s moving wheelchair to stop it, lean on their wheelchair making it jolt or tilt, climb over their wheelchair to get past it, or move their wheelchair because you think it’s in your way, you are risking injury to an obviously medically fragile person and that is Reckless Endangerment.
3. If you grab or hold onto a wheelchair, block it or in any other way prevent the person from leaving, that is Unlawful Detention or Unlawful Restraint.
4. If you start pushing a person’s wheelchair without their explicit consent, that is Abduction.
This is not a moral philosophy or an opinion. These are legal definitions. If you do any of these things, you are committing a crime for which you can be prosecuted and do jail time, and you will have a criminal record which will follow you for the rest of your life.
These same laws are applied in the same way to any mobility device including canes, walkers, and scooters. If you kick someone’s cane, grab their walker, pull on the handlebars of their scooter or in any other way touch or manhandle someone’s mobility device you are committing a crime for which you can be prosecuted and go to prison.