Amazing Stairclimbing Chairs!
- 2 Jul 07, 4:30 AM
Disabled folk have been fighting for years to make the world more accessible, and arguably progress has been too slow. One recent invention addresses the accessibility issue by designing a wheelchair that can climb stairs.
Can you believe it? I have got to get one of these. I live in a building that has two flights of stairs, and it makes my life very difficult. Unfortunately, I love my place and don't want to give it up. Other than being non-accessible, it's a great place where my landlord and neighbors let me live my life without interference. From past experience, I know it's hard to find an accessible building that would be OK with me being nocturnal, noisy, and having lots of friends over.
I wonder if such chairs are available in Canada yet, and if so, would it be covered under medical insurance? This is one of the most marvelous disability tools I've seen in a long time. Let's face it, society keeps forgetting to make their public places accessible. With a chair like this, at least gaining entrance to a building would be taken care. No ramp out front, but stairs and curbs? No problem! No elevator in the building? Doesn't matter.
It doesn't address all accessibility concerns, but it makes getting into places a lot easier. Can you imagine how much more of the world would be accessible to a wheelchair user if they got a stair-climbing wheelchair?
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Comments
Those kinds of chairs (although maybe not that brand) have been in existance for at least 17 years now.
They ran a trial with one at my local High School while I was still in Primary school to see if they'd handle the stairs there to see if I could go there.
The chair was deemed "unsafe".
s'all well and good, and probably fun.
no-one would deny that access to the inaccessible would be cool... but if they work on the principal of being of the most benefit to the most (disabled) people, build a 'kin ramp and leave that to the set of Robot Wars..