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Quadriplegic here, I would absolutely love one of these wheelchairs as I live in the countryside in the UK and I have to stay on the roads. Being able to wander

Quadriplegic here, I would absolutely love one of these wheelchairs as I live in the countryside in the UK and I have to stay on the roads. Being able to wander across the desire lines the runaround the Moors would be absolutely wonderful, if this thing actually works as advertised I would 1000% want one. Unfortunately they look prohibitively expensive for normal people. (Ahhhh, anecdata. It really is the best kind of data!) You do make a very good point however that there is a lot of tabletop engineering that goes on by able-bodied engineers deciding what quadriplegics want, they invariably get it wrong. Not because they are bad people but because they are not quadriplegic and they are not exposed to quadriplegic beta testers for their products, which is something I try hard to help companies to do. I also don't think I have a type A personality, I think I just have a desire to go outside and go for a walk with my partner. There really is a somewhat pernicious meme around disability that people that want to do something outside of the norm have to have a type A personality, are difficult or are in some way not like those other disabled people. I'm not sure how to unpack it but it seems to be if you are quiet and sit in your wheelchair not disturbing anyone then you are the right kind of disabled person, the only other acceptable kind of disabled people in wheelchairs are either the classic "Stephen Hawking" or the Paralympian. For everybody else there is a total lack of expectation. Obviously I'm not ascribing any of these opinions to you, and to be honest seeing that you noticed that there are tons of products designed for quadriplegics that are of absolutely no use puts you way above the pack in the insight stakes. This was meant to be an opposing point of view, please take it in that they and not as me trolling you. I really did think you had a good point! I would be happy to continue the conversation as well. I'm a quadriplegic public speaker, pretend grown-up, practising hacker… AMA! :-)

oblib 8y ago
I am so glad you chimed in. I had several friends in chairs that I went hiking with in parks and fishing with around Los Angeles and other places I've lived. Most of the people I worked with were straight out of rehab, and I got to work with many of them for years after. Most all got stronger and increased their mobility afterwards and being able to drive somewhere and get around in their chairs, and get a job, really helped normalize their lives. They were often more willing to try something new than those who kind of holed up. I can say with certainty that most were not "Type A", but those I recall that were would generally not be at all apprehensive about learning to drive the vehicles we modified for them. They wanted to go do burnouts as soon as they could :D

oblib 8y ago

I am so glad you chimed in. I had several friends in chairs that I went hiking with in parks and fishing with around Los Angeles and other places I've lived. Most of the people I worked with were straight out of rehab, and I got to work with many of them for years after. Most all got stronger and increased their mobility afterwards and being able to drive somewhere and get around in their chairs, and get a job, really helped normalize their lives. They were often more willing to try something new than those who kind of holed up. I can say with certainty that most were not "Type A", but those I recall that were would generally not be at all apprehensive about learning to drive the vehicles we modified for them. They wanted to go do burnouts as soon as they could :D