It’s been a while since our last update on developments in the world of wheelchairs. Plenty has happened since then, so we thought it would be a good time to take a look at some of the latest mobility related stories and quickly round up what’s been going on.
The first thing to mention, since we’re all about style and disability, is the “What’s Your Style” promotion currently going on at Sunrise Medical. They’re offering a free style package of extras, worth up to £440, with each wheelchair bought. With this deal, available until the end of May 2014, the already very popular latest series of Quickie wheelchairs look better than ever.
The freebies involved are: adjustable vented back upholstery (worth up to £113), an aluminium sideguard (with or without fender, (up to £185), an anodized style pack (up to £71) and a choice of frame colour – including matt colours (up to £71).
The add-ons are available for the latest Quickie wheelchair models which are the Helium (their flagship manual chair), the Argon2 (a more adjustable chair for people with changing needs) and the Life R (which can operate as a fixed front or swing-away). These already stylish chairs look even cooler with the promotion and it’s well worth checking out. You can find your local Quickie dealer here.
After an article we wrote last year on trendy wheelchairs, the Panthera X was pointed out to us as another example of a lightweight and stylish chair. We did already know about this excellent wheelchair model but had, almost criminally, failed to mention it on our site for over two years and even then only made the briefest of mentions. This was an oversight only made worse when BBS boss Fiona told us that she has a Panthera herself. Luckily nobody at BBS Towers got into any trouble over this omission, so thanks go to Sunniva for reminding us about these brilliant wheelchairs.
The Panthera X is a Swedish wheelchair design made out of carbon fibre, which makes it really rigid as well as as light as possible. The chair is super lightweight. Super, super lightweight actually. In fact, it’s the world’s lightest wheelchair. They’re available at GBL Wheelchairs in the UK and for readers in North America, they seem to only be sold through Triumph Mobility in Ontario (let us know if you know of anywhere else where they can be bought). At £5225 (excluding VAT) it’s not as cheap as some models of wheelchair but it is very cool and very easy to use.
The Panthera X’s hefty price tag pretty much pales into insignificance compared to that of the ‘Ferrari of wheelchairs’. We’ve talked ad nauseum about Carbon Black wheelchairs so we won’t talk too much about them here (seriously, it’s at a stage where if you Google ‘carbon black wheelchair’ our website comes up before theirs does!). We just wanted to remind you about how cool they are and let you know that Fiona is supposed to be test driving the chair in the near future, so we should have some first hand feedback coming soon.
Leaving the realm of wheelchairs which are currently on sale and moving into the slightly murkier area of prototypes and new wheelchair concepts, the UP Wheelchair looks like a superb idea for the future. The designers targeted a simple problem – the fact that wheelchair users find themselves operating at a lower level to able bodied people. This leads to objects, switches, door handles, etc being out of reach and needing to find solutions to the problem of trying to a conversation on different levels which can be awkward (or worse, condescending).
Based on the premise of an office chair, the seat on the UP Wheelchair can be easily raised and lowered to deal with everyday issues of a vertical nature. Using an inbuilt mechanism to lift and lower the user, similar to those seen in standard desk chairs these days, the UP Wheelchair would be highly adaptable. It’s a good concept but clearly one in the early stages of development. The mocked up pictures of the chair currently suggest that, although the main seat raises, the footrest remains stationary which could leave awkward dangling feet. A look at the information (or lack thereof) on their website shows that this is still some way of perfecting. Having said that, it is the beginning of a great idea. Take a look at their video below.
All wheelchair users know that even fairly minor variations in terrain can cause a good deal of discomfort and these SoftWheels have been design to dramatically smooth out the ride. SoftWheels are high suspension shock absorbing wheels, designed to make wheelchair use more comfortable and can even make going down steps less of an unpleasant experience. The wheels’ unique suspension mechanism was designed by an Israeli team who’ve taken their thinking “out of the box and into the wheel”. The wheels’ suspension expands and shrinks to absorb the shock of variation. They’re not available outside of Israel and it won’t be surprising if that remains the case for a while, but these are something to keep an eye on.
In other wheelchair related ‘news’ we found a heartwarming video of a young F1 mega fan whose wheelchair has been given an amazing makeover. Through modification it went from a boring everyday power chair to a Ferrari, with a leather seat, iPod dock and carbon fibre features. The video below shows how it was made and his reaction when he sees his new chair for the first time. Think Pimp My Ride but with a wheelchair instead of a car and Boyzone’s Shane Lynch instead of Xzibit. Maybe we’re not as cool as our American cousins are but this is a lovely gesture and video nonetheless!