Motorized Wheel Chair

The technological revolution has finally reached the world of motorized wheelchairs and it’s probably here to stay with the release of the newest models from Permobil, Levo and the dashboard controls for power chair users from Dynamic Controls. I’d have to say that hopefully these advances in the home care industry are here to stay, improving it and one day becoming more affordable.  However, the price for the most advance motorized wheelchairs is still pretty high. But you can investigate further to see if funding, assisted devices programs or health care insurance will cover these new models.  The benefits that come with these mobility devices are a must-have and make further investigation definitely worth it.

What I’m talking about is the recently released Permobil motorized wheelchair which offers a lot but also comes at a pretty steep cost to the consumer.  Priced at $55,000, this hi-tech four wheel drive all terrain mode is certainly bound to find some lucky owners. Funding is available and Permobil can assist in funding queries.  The website is at www.permobil.com.

Levo, a manufacturer from Switzerland, has rethought out the motorized wheelchair.  Levo has a wheelchair model, the LEVO C3, which moves from seated position to stand up position in a matter of seconds. It’s got four wheel drive and can climb up curbs of just over four inches and up 30% grades.  The LEVO C3 also includes R-Net drive, Bluetooth, knee supports and much more.  Incredibly innovative technology!  For more information on Levo products, check out their website at levousa.com.

Dynamic Controls, another innovative company has recently released an iPhone app, a power chair accessory that places a dashboard control panel with a speedometer and a battery charged indicator for your motorized electric wheelchair.  This iPhone app by Dynamic Controls allows you to connect to an iPhone or iPad bringing modern technology to your finger tips at the touch of a button.  You can get this app at iTunes for free currently, but it will eventually sell for approximately $100.  I suggest that you get the app while it’s still free.  It is compatible with Dynamic Controls Shark, DX, and DX2 control systems, and iPhone 4.  Since the iPhone 5 is about to come on the market in early October, you will have to inquire at the website to find out more about its compatibility when finallly released.  Find out more about the Dynamic Control iPhone app at their website www.dynamiccontrols.com/iportal.  Seems like this will become a much sought after wheelchair accessory you’ve got to have.

Ensuring the best in personal mobility, I’m pretty impressed with the latest technological advances in mobility for the consumer.  These technological advances in the world of motorized wheelchairs narrow the gap and provide a more daily active life to users with the best in power chair technology.

A German entrepreneur, Paul Krauthausen has designed an accessibility map showing wheelchair-accessible locations worldwide.  The site is call WheelMap. Org.  Volunteers have contributed to this wheelchair mapping site, mapping over 73,000 places, chiefly in Europe at the current time in order to help the 185 million people who are in search for wheelchair accessible locations around the globe.  The WheelMap.Org site will no doubt grow overtime to reflect the needs for such a website as this indispensable tool.  It just goes t o show that anyone can do anything.  Identify a need and then fulfill it.  Personally, I think this is a great idea and it’s about time.  This wheelchair news story first appeared in www.dw-world.de.

Every day, countless people use Google Maps or other online mapping services to figure out how to walk or drive from one place to another. But for the 185 million people in wheelchairs around the globe, stairs and other uneven surfaces are constant obstacles in their daily lives.

One year ago this month, 31-year-old social entrepreneur Raul Krauthausen launched an online tool that maps wheelchair-accessible locations in different cities around the globe. He’s one of 1.6 million wheelchair users in Germany. Over the past year, 2,000 contributors have mapped over 73,000 places – mostly in Europe – including bars, cafes, government offices, and train stations on WheelMap.org.

“Two years ago a friend of mine was sitting with me in a café and told me that he hates this café where we meet every day and he wants to go to another place,” Krauthausen explained.

“But as a wheelchair drive …you always have the problem that you don’t know which café is wheelchair accessible.”
The site makes use of “open data,” information that is stored in a particular file format so that it’s easy for programmers to create new visualizations or variations on it.

Developers point out that commercial online mapping tools like Google Street View often don’t take into consideration how wheelchair users use public transportation. But, with open data tools like OpenStreetMap, they can create the online tools that cities or companies have neglected.

In recent years, there has been a greater movement pushing cities like London, Manchester, Madrid and Turin to make their transit scheduling available as open data. Wehrmeyer had to collect this information on Berlin by hand.

“In addition to timetables, public transport companies should also provide real-time updates as to where the elevators or escalators have recently broken down – because people with disabilities depend on these services,” he added.

Krauthausen has developed into the site which now draws around 100 new entries every day. The site is dependent on wheelchair users who contribute their own knowledge of places under four color-coded categories.

Wheelmap has become almost indispensible for many of its users, especially in older European cities like Berlin that are not always designed to accommodate them.”

Author: Cinnamon Nippard, Photos: dw-world.de