Motorized Wheel Chair

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

For millions of people around the world, motorized wheelchairs is a hope and part of a plan to lead a nearly regular life. Basically, let’s face it, if we are mobile, we can do anything.  Those with extremely weak upper body strength or those who are disabled just cannot imagine life without these modern mobility devices. A lot of technological advancements are taking place in the field of motorized wheelchairs today. In order to keep yourself updated about the latest developments, it is always vital that you go through motorized wheelchair news regularly if you want to keep up to date on the newest developments. Another great way to keep up with the latest developments is to join a forum on the subject. These are great sources of information from which you can get to learn about the latest technological advancements that are taking place in the world of motorized wheelchairs and mobility technology.

There are many newspaper articles and magazines that cover topics related to the latest development in wheelchair technology that you can review. You can also find several useful buying guides, if you were to go to various different bookstores. These buying guides will come in handy whenever you are looking around the market for a wheelchair, whether brand new or second hand.

The advent of the internet has made searching for information all the more easy for us. You can now get all the motorized wheelchair news that you want, right from the comforts of your home. All that you need to do is to search for the various online sources that provide such information. I try to keep this updated with the latest news and online wheelchair product reviews you’ll find here are a good way to get to know about the different brands of wheelchairs that are available. You can also find many online forums which are dedicated to the topic. They offer you a good way to interact with others and get to know from them about the latest products on offer in the market.  Who knows – you might even make some new friends!