USU employees invent wheelchair transport system
Reprinted with permission of
The Herald Journal
June 19, 2009
Herald Journal staff report
Two employees of Utah Sate University's Center for Persons with Disabilities have come up with an improved system for storing wheelchairs during air travel.
Their solution was a big box and tie-down straps to hold the wheelchair.
The create can be strapped down so securely that it can be turned on its side without impacting the chair. Built-in windows allow anyone to do a security check of the chair. It can also be lifted with a forklift, and if it is dropped or tipped, the chair is semi-suspended and protected from impact. Handles on the box allow it to be lifted, castors let it roll and its shape is stackable.
The two collaborators--CPD consumer liaison Gordon Richins and assistive techology lab coordinator Stan Clelland--took their design to the Technology Commercialization Office at USU and apllied for a patent in 2008.
Over the 2008-09 school year, market research students at USU took on the box as a class project. They concluded that it would fill a niche that is currently empty in the marketplace, but the ownership and use of the boxes would best be left to the airlines. That way, travelers would not have to worry about storing a big box when they go on trips.
The airlines have not yet responded to the idea. Still, the Air Carrier Access Act makes the airlines financially responsible for damage to assistive devices, and the inventors say those charges could add up. Mobility equipment ranges from hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars in value.
The inconvenience to wheelchair users goes far beyond repairs. Many mobility devices are styled for the specific needs of the individual who uses them. Fixing or replacing them takes time, and during the wait, the people who depend on them may be left stranded.
It's a scenario Lopeti Penima'ani understands too well. The access chairman of the Disabled Rights Action Committee in Utah and the user of a motorized chair, Penima'ani was interviewed after returning from a trip to Washington, D.C. His chair was damaged in flight--something that has happened on nearly every plane trip he's taken.
The 400-pound mobility device is too heavy for one or two baggage handlers to carry, he said.
His chair needed to be replaced once, costing the airline $19,700 and forcing him to use a temporary chair that did not have the elevating leg rests and tilt and recline features he requires. He waited six months for the correct chair to arrive.
Penima'ani said he is glad the two CPD inventors are looking for a better way for his chair to fly.
