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this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2023
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Technology
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Seat elevator on power wheelchair. I got a chair with a seat elevator in my late teens and it was a total game changer for me. I was suddenly able to access so much more of the world and operate more independently, and eventually live alone on my own. I was barely able to get it and had to fight insurance as it was very costly at the time. Now in the USA, they just became standard through CMS (Medicare/Medicaid) which typically becomes standard industry wide, meaning seat elevators in power wheelchairs are now available to everyone with insurance. That's pretty amazing to me that this type of technology will be the default now.
When I first saw a Segway (remember all the hype?) I thought a self-balancing 2-wheel elevated wheelchair would be coming shortly after.
There are some! Unfortunately they haven't really caught on well, not easily available unless purchasing outright and they're usually 10s of thousands (most power chairs are) and not covered by insurance. I really want to try one, this is one I'm really interested in that can climb stairs.
That Scewo design is interesting. It's infuriating that the price is more than a car. I've build balance-bots with Lego, it's not complicated tech.
What I had in mind was more like Boston Dynamics' Handle: https://youtu.be/-7xvqQeoA8c (Which I would call "advanced" ... in 2017.)
Yea unfortunately that's the disability tax, most things designed for disability are expensive. That's a cool design, I hadn't seen it before. Maybe in another decade the tech will be replicated in mobility aids.
Another reason besides price for why the 2 wheel balancing chairs aren't used more is just functionality. Many people who use power chairs aren't able to balance well, my own is pretty poor, so there's an even more limited market and unfortunately we live in capitalism.
Hmm. My intuition is it shouldn't take any balancing skill on the user's part, but the chair/bot will be fidgety -- moving a little bit to maintain balance. So maybe not a good experience for activities needing stillness.