Please first read this article:
Inaugural National Mobility Awareness Month Commences in May Saluting the More than 18 Million with Disabilities
In April my Mother in Law contacted me about her upcoming visit to the Mile High City with a request for a seemingly common product. It turned in to a major fiasco and Road to Damascus moment for me about how the US is all talk about independence and the individual. First some background:
My MIL needs a wheelchair due to a nervous condition. She can walk but only for a few steps before she becomes exhausted. As she and her husband have aged she's had to rely more on electronic wheelchairs but prefers her manual one and usually it is good enough. Mainly, she must travel with the collapse- able manual one as the electronic one is just a bear to travel with. Ask yourself, how would you even travel with one of those?
However, since she is frail and everyone is getting older and doesn't want to tax any of us in this 5280--8700 elevation with pushing her manual wheelchair, she wisely let me know about a battery pack option: http://www.tgamobility.co.uk/range/powerpacks
As you can see, these are quite easy to understand and are quite common. Basically you attach a battery pack to a manual wheelchair to give it some power and help propel the chair so the person pushing isn't working so hard. Definitely a great idea for hilly areas and a boon, like oxygen based businesses for the Colorado altitude. SO easy to understand and SUCH a smart idea. I naively assumed that in the matter of minutes I would find one here for her, whether to buy or to rent.
I then spent 5 hours on internet research and the phone talking to folks in the wheelchair and other DME industry folks to find out that the vast majority have never heard of such a product. A few folks were open to the idea of it. Some couldn't understand it until I sent them the same link as above. Pretty much everyone accepted the idea of it as being a great thing but a few were closed minded to it and just encouraged me to rent her an electric wheelchair. I'm not sure if you know but those are not cheap and certainly not an option for many due to:
1) One cannot really operate them alone and one certainly cannot get them in and out of a vehicle alone. Remember, they do not fold like the manual ones do. Most are complex and weigh hundreds of pounds.
2) The only kinds of vehicles which can house this mammoth chair are vans with special mechanisms to lift the chair in and out. As you can imagine these are not cheap. No regular vehicle rental company rents these types and there is no company that does near the airport.
In fact, this national mobility month illustrates that there are handicapped folks out there trying to win a vehicle like this because they are very expensive.
Again, NO ONE said "let me try to get one for you". No one in the mobility market actually seemed to care to provide what could make someone more mobile and independent. Of course this got my goat!
Over the course of that week I spent a good deal of time talking to professional care takers and county and regional government offices and charities trying to find out if any of these groups have this device, have heard of it and basically what is to be done to help these folks be more mobile and independent. Bottom line: I am shocked at how backwards we are and how we are living as ostriches about this problem.
Not to put too fine a point on it but I do want to make sure that the issues are clear. The US is supposedly for the individual and the independent. Certain groups, particularly the Libertarians and the GOP are adamantly against any kind of taxed program that promotes the socialistic idea that we need to take care of the needs of others. Groups opposed to such basics do so because they hold an ignorantly selfish idea that all individuals should meet their own needs and that all have the money to pay out the wazoo for personal assistants, medical care takers and equipment to do so.
However,
1) my MIL is being told to rent an electric wheelchair here in the states which would require at a minimum 1 other person to travel with, to help her at the airport, the rental facility, etc. (it really would take 3 of us probably)
2) At home in England she can go around either in her manual or electric wheelchair and do everything she needs to do because her government, not a car company, has funded her with a device in a regular vehicle to lift up the chair, thus she is able to travel the country ALONE as she sees fit.
3) Battery packs here are not available because "they are not economically viable options in the DME (durable medical equipment) industry. Who says? How was this decided? I could not get to the bottom of that unfortunately. Thus it ended up that she had to buy one of the English battery packs there and will have to transport it here, thus taking up a good chunk of her allotted baggage and I get the fun of charging it here. However, I am happy that the good English companies that had the vision to make the product and are the ones who truly respect people's needs and wants to be independent are the ones rewarded with the patronage.
For the US, I shake my head. I believe that the car companies and the wheelchair companies just want you to believe they are the only option and buy their much more expensive options. Corporations here are far too powerful. As a nation we are ignorant of the true problems of those with disabilities and those who are just differently-abled. We are preying on those who need the most help and those who most deserve to feel like they can live a normal life. The closest I can find in this country is this: http://www.frankmobility.com/viamobil.php
It seems like a good product but please note, it is only to buy, none to rent, takes weeks or months to receive after you order and still costs thousands of dollars (at time of writing cost is $4995. Please remember that the one in England sells for 699 pounds which at time of writing is $1131.)
Imagine if those with disabilities were able to truly live independently. I would like it very much if we can figure out a better way and welcome all feedback. I'm trying to figure it out and have not yet. Hopefully this is a start.
Inaugural National Mobility Awareness Month Commences in May Saluting the More than 18 Million with Disabilities
In April my Mother in Law contacted me about her upcoming visit to the Mile High City with a request for a seemingly common product. It turned in to a major fiasco and Road to Damascus moment for me about how the US is all talk about independence and the individual. First some background:
My MIL needs a wheelchair due to a nervous condition. She can walk but only for a few steps before she becomes exhausted. As she and her husband have aged she's had to rely more on electronic wheelchairs but prefers her manual one and usually it is good enough. Mainly, she must travel with the collapse- able manual one as the electronic one is just a bear to travel with. Ask yourself, how would you even travel with one of those?
However, since she is frail and everyone is getting older and doesn't want to tax any of us in this 5280--8700 elevation with pushing her manual wheelchair, she wisely let me know about a battery pack option: http://www.tgamobility.co.uk/range/powerpacks
As you can see, these are quite easy to understand and are quite common. Basically you attach a battery pack to a manual wheelchair to give it some power and help propel the chair so the person pushing isn't working so hard. Definitely a great idea for hilly areas and a boon, like oxygen based businesses for the Colorado altitude. SO easy to understand and SUCH a smart idea. I naively assumed that in the matter of minutes I would find one here for her, whether to buy or to rent.
I then spent 5 hours on internet research and the phone talking to folks in the wheelchair and other DME industry folks to find out that the vast majority have never heard of such a product. A few folks were open to the idea of it. Some couldn't understand it until I sent them the same link as above. Pretty much everyone accepted the idea of it as being a great thing but a few were closed minded to it and just encouraged me to rent her an electric wheelchair. I'm not sure if you know but those are not cheap and certainly not an option for many due to:
1) One cannot really operate them alone and one certainly cannot get them in and out of a vehicle alone. Remember, they do not fold like the manual ones do. Most are complex and weigh hundreds of pounds.
2) The only kinds of vehicles which can house this mammoth chair are vans with special mechanisms to lift the chair in and out. As you can imagine these are not cheap. No regular vehicle rental company rents these types and there is no company that does near the airport.
In fact, this national mobility month illustrates that there are handicapped folks out there trying to win a vehicle like this because they are very expensive.
Again, NO ONE said "let me try to get one for you". No one in the mobility market actually seemed to care to provide what could make someone more mobile and independent. Of course this got my goat!
Over the course of that week I spent a good deal of time talking to professional care takers and county and regional government offices and charities trying to find out if any of these groups have this device, have heard of it and basically what is to be done to help these folks be more mobile and independent. Bottom line: I am shocked at how backwards we are and how we are living as ostriches about this problem.
Not to put too fine a point on it but I do want to make sure that the issues are clear. The US is supposedly for the individual and the independent. Certain groups, particularly the Libertarians and the GOP are adamantly against any kind of taxed program that promotes the socialistic idea that we need to take care of the needs of others. Groups opposed to such basics do so because they hold an ignorantly selfish idea that all individuals should meet their own needs and that all have the money to pay out the wazoo for personal assistants, medical care takers and equipment to do so.
However,
1) my MIL is being told to rent an electric wheelchair here in the states which would require at a minimum 1 other person to travel with, to help her at the airport, the rental facility, etc. (it really would take 3 of us probably)
2) At home in England she can go around either in her manual or electric wheelchair and do everything she needs to do because her government, not a car company, has funded her with a device in a regular vehicle to lift up the chair, thus she is able to travel the country ALONE as she sees fit.
3) Battery packs here are not available because "they are not economically viable options in the DME (durable medical equipment) industry. Who says? How was this decided? I could not get to the bottom of that unfortunately. Thus it ended up that she had to buy one of the English battery packs there and will have to transport it here, thus taking up a good chunk of her allotted baggage and I get the fun of charging it here. However, I am happy that the good English companies that had the vision to make the product and are the ones who truly respect people's needs and wants to be independent are the ones rewarded with the patronage.
For the US, I shake my head. I believe that the car companies and the wheelchair companies just want you to believe they are the only option and buy their much more expensive options. Corporations here are far too powerful. As a nation we are ignorant of the true problems of those with disabilities and those who are just differently-abled. We are preying on those who need the most help and those who most deserve to feel like they can live a normal life. The closest I can find in this country is this: http://www.frankmobility.com/viamobil.php
It seems like a good product but please note, it is only to buy, none to rent, takes weeks or months to receive after you order and still costs thousands of dollars (at time of writing cost is $4995. Please remember that the one in England sells for 699 pounds which at time of writing is $1131.)
Imagine if those with disabilities were able to truly live independently. I would like it very much if we can figure out a better way and welcome all feedback. I'm trying to figure it out and have not yet. Hopefully this is a start.
1 comment:
This was really interesting (and surprising) to read. Hopefully such products will be available to wheelchair users in the US soon.
I have noticed though that thanks to the ADA, the US is light years ahead of other countries (UK, mainland Europe, Australia) when it comes to disabled access.
As someone who has had to carry a toddler in a stroller up and down the stairs in the tube stations for the past 10 months this is something I really take note of.
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