Wheelchairs

This Farmer Reinvented the Wheel to Build a Better Wheelchair

It’s one of the most stale idioms in the book: Don’t reinvent the wheel. But that didn’t stop Gilad Wolf, the Israeli inventor who found that comfortably getting around in a conventional wheelchair was nearly impossible. Instead, Wolf set out to reinvent his wheelchair wheels. Drawing from everything from farm equipment to the innovations at…

Tech News PJ Smith

Redesigned Handles Make It Easier To Push and Pull a Wheelchair

Their design is mostly functional as is, but until now no one has really stopped to ask if the handles on the back of a wheelchair could be improved. It turns out the answer is yes—an emphatic yes, in fact—given how useful these ergonomic alternatives appear to be. Designed to make it more comfortable for…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski

How A California City’s Sidewalks Were Redesigned for Wheelchairs

The story of how Berkeley, California, first got wheelchair-accessible sidewalks in the 1970s is an unlikely mix of public protest, anti-war sentiment, and the grassroots potential of urban planning for the people, by the people. Writing for Boom, Bess Williamson explains how the city began to redesign itself for everyone to navigate. A story of…

Tech News Bess Williamson

Why Don’t We Design a Better Wheelchair?

What’s the difference between using a wheelchair and wearing glasses? Both take advantage of technology to adjust or enhance human capabilities. Yet we tend to consider people in wheelchairs as disabled, and people with glasses as, well, relatively normal. It’s all about perspective. The Atlantic’s Rebecca Rosen recently interviewed Sara Hendren, who runs a blog…

Tech News Adam Clark Estes

This Genius Wheelchair Turns Your Tongue into a Joystick

Getting around in a wheelchair is difficult enough, even when one still has use of their upper extremities. Quadriplegics face an exponentially more difficult challenge: controlling the wheelchair by sucking or blowing air through a straw. But this new powered wheelchair from the Georgia Institute of Technology will respond to a flick of the user’s…

Tech News Andrew Tarantola

This Professor X-Approved Futuristic Wheelchair Is Arriving Next Year

The original WHILL was a clamp on device designed to power manual wheelchairs lacking an electric motor. Unfortunately, it turns out it will never see the light of day, but the design and technology behind that original concept have been repurposed for the futuristic Whill Type-A electric wheelchair that’s actually now up for pre-order with…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski

Is This Tiny Tank the Comfiest Wheelchair Ever?

It might look like a one-seat sofa capable of traversing almost any terrain on the planet, but this compact electric vehicle is actually designed to be a highly maneuverable and comfortable alternative to a traditional wheelchair. You won’t ever see it cruising down sidewalks, but one day they might be crawling all over hospitals. The…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski

Electric Bike Tech Makes Power-Assisted Wheelchairs Way More Affordable

Not surprisingly, those fancy electric wheelchairs that let people with limited mobility cruise about with the push of a joystick are incredibly expensive. So adapting technology that powers modern electric bikes, Yamaha’s JWX-2 electric assist gives that same mobility for less—and can be retrofitted to almost any manually driven wheelchair. What’s unique about the system…

Gadgets Andrew Liszewski

This Four-Legged Wheelchair Climbs Steps Like a Mountain Goat

Researchers at the Chiba Institute of Technology in Japan have come up with a four-legged wheelchair design that lets the mobility device tackle steps and other obstacles that it simply couldn’t with just four wheels. And it keeps its passenger level and perfectly safe when it’s tip-toeing over uneven terrain. Like a regular wheelchair this…

Gadgets Andrew Liszewski

Wheelchair Morphs Into Bed, Claims Title of Ultimate Work-From-Home Accessory

Transferring patients with limited mobility from a wheelchair to a bed could soon be an easier feat if Panasonic perfects this electric care bed it’s been developing. It transforms from a wheelchair to a hospital bed so that patients don’t ever have to actually be moved from one to the other. It’s also an amazing…

Health Andrew Liszewski

Underwater Wheelchair Rides Should Be a Real Thing

Would it ever really make sense to build wheelchairs that can cruise around underwater? Maybe not. But when it’s an art project, watching a wheelchair power around in the sea is surreal and oddly mesmerizing. There’s really nothing else to do but sit back and enjoy the visuals for what they are—beautiful. [Freewheeling]

Tech News Adrian Covert

World’s First Lego Electric Wheelchair Can Support a Two Hundred Pound Passenger

It’s not going to get you anywhere in a hurry, but Simon Burfield’s joystick-controlled electric wheelchair is built from the ground up using just Lego. What’s even more impressive is that the chair can carry someone up to 200 pounds in weight, as long as there aren’t any obstacles for it to traverse. Controlled by…

Gadgets Andrew Liszewski

Brazen Alcoholic Gets a DUI On a Stolen Motorized Wheelchair

If you steal someone’s motorized wheelchair to go for a joyride, you’re sick—Or maybe just completely drunk like this guy. How drunk was Richard Kulma when he was busted? Three times the legal limit drunk. So too blacked out to walk let alone operate so much as a can opener. Look at this police dash…

Tech News Mario Aguilar

How to Turn Any Wheelchair Into an Electric Scooter

Since electric wheelchairs don’t run forever, users will often still rely on a manual version for getting around the house. But depending on their physical condition, switching between devices can be difficult. So the IWA, or Independent Wheelchair Assist, adds a temporary electric drive to any chair. It provides the same long-distance mobility as an…

Gadgets Andrew Liszewski

Tiny Skis for Wheelchairs Tackle Snow With Ease

The small and thin front wheels on a wheelchair or stroller might roll easy on hard surfaces, but on snow and ice they sink right in like a hot knife through butter. So a Swedish inventor has created a simple ski accessory that lets smaller wheels easily slide over frozen conditions. The Wheel Blades—created by…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski

Roosevelt—The Bi-Pedal, Off-Roading Border Collie

As any Border Collie owner (*raises hand*) can tell you, to describe them as “high energy” is modest at best. Bred as herding dogs, they required near constant activity and attention because if they aren’t “working,” they aren’t happy. But how is a Border Collie supposed to “work” when his front legs won’t, well, work?…

Tech News Andrew Tarantola

Clamp On WHILL Temporarily Gives Manual Wheelchairs Electric Drive

It might look like a monstrous set of headphones, but the WHILL is actually an electric drivetrain designed to clamp onto manually powered wheelchairs, temporarily giving them a powered boost when longer distances have to be traveled. The prototype—which was recently demonstrated at the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show—features a round hub on either side that…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski

IntelliWheels AGS Shifts the Wheelchair Into a Higher Gear

Scott Daigle, a graduate engineering student at the University of Illinois, looked at the wheelchair, then at the bicycle, and then back at the wheelchair and asked “Why not a gear system on a wheelchair?” Then he built one. Called IntelliWheels AGS, this wheelchair shifting system brings the convenience that cyclists have enjoyed for many,…

Tech News Jack Loftus

Tongue Piercings Can Steer Wheelchairs

Researchers have tested a tongue piercing that’ll allow paralyzed people to steer their wheelchairs in any direction. All they have to do is move their tongue a specific direction and the wheelchair will follow. The tongue piercing initiative is being run by the Northwestern University School of Medicine and they pierced the tongue of Martin…

Tech News Casey Chan

Motorizing a Manual Wheelchair With a Friggin Lawnmower

The problem with naming our tools is that we tend to pigeonhole them. Case in point: who says a lawnmower is strictly for mowing lawns? Especially when it’s clearly equally well suited to the business of playing mighty steed to your manual wheelchair chariot. [Presurfer]

Tech News Brian Barrett

This Farmer Reinvented the Wheel to Build a Better Wheelchair

Redesigned Handles Make It Easier To Push and Pull a Wheelchair

How A California City’s Sidewalks Were Redesigned for Wheelchairs

Why Don’t We Design a Better Wheelchair?

This Genius Wheelchair Turns Your Tongue into a Joystick

This Professor X-Approved Futuristic Wheelchair Is Arriving Next Year

Is This Tiny Tank the Comfiest Wheelchair Ever?

Electric Bike Tech Makes Power-Assisted Wheelchairs Way More Affordable

This Four-Legged Wheelchair Climbs Steps Like a Mountain Goat

Wheelchair Morphs Into Bed, Claims Title of Ultimate Work-From-Home Accessory

Underwater Wheelchair Rides Should Be a Real Thing

World’s First Lego Electric Wheelchair Can Support a Two Hundred Pound Passenger

Brazen Alcoholic Gets a DUI On a Stolen Motorized Wheelchair

How to Turn Any Wheelchair Into an Electric Scooter

Tiny Skis for Wheelchairs Tackle Snow With Ease

Roosevelt—The Bi-Pedal, Off-Roading Border Collie

Clamp On WHILL Temporarily Gives Manual Wheelchairs Electric Drive

IntelliWheels AGS Shifts the Wheelchair Into a Higher Gear

Tongue Piercings Can Steer Wheelchairs

Motorizing a Manual Wheelchair With a Friggin Lawnmower

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