Transcriber: Lisa Rodriguez Reviewer: David DeRuwe
Imagine with me that tomorrow, on our way to work or school,
we're involved in a car accident.
You wake up to find that you've lost the use of your legs.
Just take a moment to realize
what effect this might have on you, your family,
and particularly your caregiver.
Our lives have changed forever.
The challenges and opportunities we face will be dictated by where we live,
if we have medical insurance, and how we respond to this event.
People all over the world
face mobility challenges like this everyday.
We will probably all face mobility challenges
at some time in our life, maybe from birth,
through an accident, natural disaster, or just the good luck of old age.
You probably know someone today
that is limited by their ability to move freely
and wish you can do something to help.
Millions of people in the United States have difficulty walking, climbing stairs,
or just getting out into their yard.
Tens of millions around the world.
But few can access adequate mobility solutions,
mainly due to the high cost.
The needs are unique to each person, their circumstances and their environment.
If they have access to funding or institutionalized care,
it may provide equipment
that may or may not meet all their needs
or fit their environment.
If not, they're on their own, and that's a really tough place to be.
This is what makes the mobility challenge difficult to solve.
But what if we could enable accessible mobility
for everyone everywhere?
What if we could bring together local teams with global experts
to solve these unique mobility issues?
Most mobility solutions today are only suitable for hard, flat surfaces.
It may require you to modify your home,
make you dependent on insurance companies or approvals by people you've never met,
take months to get, or too expensive for you to afford.
What if the user had a local team of medical experts and facilitators
who work with a global team to solve these unique mobility needs.
They could create sustainable and functional local mobility
for any need and any environment.
By combining readily accessible materials, like bicycle parts and wood,
with locally available skills, like nursing and woodworking,
this global team could create mobility solutions
that worked for any need and any environment.
Most mobility challenges are in three areas:
inside the home, in your yard, and in your community.
These challenges can't be met by a single device,
so several solutions need to be required
because different environments require different solutions.
When you're inside your home,
you may need a mobility device that fits through your existing doorways,
is easy to transfer to and from your existing furniture,
and is comfortable to sit in for long periods
but safe from pressure sores.
In your yard, you may need a mobility device
that can handle tall grass and loose dirt,
carry gardening supplies,
and is low enough to the ground for you to plant seeds and tend the yard.
To access your community, you may need a mobility device
that allows you to get to and from work,
school, shopping or community activities.
With a handcycle, when you arrive at the activity,
it's very difficult to interact with it because it's such a large device.
One device can't fulfill all these needs efficiently,
so several pieces of equipment are required.
If you have insurance, most policies will only pay
for one piece of equipment every several years,
and probably not an outdoor chair or a handcycle.
This is the reality for people with special mobility needs.
They're limited as to what they can do and enjoy.
When I first started this project,
I used my background in mechanical engineering and gardening,
but knew I needed help from the medical perspective
to make sure the equipment didn't cause unforeseen problems.
It was easy to find local education, where I gained an appreciation
of the medical issues associated with limited mobilities
and met medical professionals
who were more than willing to help improve our designs.
They helped us understand
that just because we could enable someone to do something,
the unintended consequences might cause harm
if we didn't incorporate sound engineering and medical practices.
This led to the do-it-together approach.
Rather than doing it yourself, the do-it-together approach
brings multiple people's expertise to the project,
and improves the designs and the outcomes,
and is frankly more fun in the process.
The do-it-together approach integrates the user, local facilitators,
local medical professionals, and global design experts
to solve these unique mobility needs.
This approach was key to providing accessible mobility in my community.
But what about beyond my community?
When I got an opportunity to spend a few months in Sierra Leone,
I realized there was an even greater need for mobility solutions there
because there were few paved roads
and the materials and skills available were nothing like the ones back home.
Many communities around the world don't have paved roads, sidewalks,
or anything like the Americans with Disabilities Act.
I realized I'd liked to bring the do-it-together approach there,
but the issue I ran into was my lack of knowledge
about the available materials and skills in local rural environments.
When we first started making mobility devices,
we used bicycle parts and metal tube for the frame.
My dad was an electrician,
so I had the tools and knew how to bend metal pipe.
It was readily available, so this is what we used.
But when I got to Sierra Leone, not only was metal pipe hard to find,
it took me two weeks to find an electric drill.
And then, none of the local team I was working with had ever used one.
To make matters more difficult,
the only electricity was available a few hours a day from a generator.
Another reality check came when they asked
if I could fix a donated wheelchair they were having trouble with.
So I took a look.
It was a simple fix with a spare part, so I asked where we could get one.
They said they might have one in the back, behind the cookhouse.
I was thinking of a storeroom with shelves apart,
but what I found was a pile of donated wheelchairs
behind the building.
None of them were usable
because the repair parts needed to be ordered from overseas
and just the shipping was too expensive for them to afford.
I didn't find the part I needed,
mainly because all the wheelchairs were from different manufacturers
and none of the parts interchanged.
I realized I wasn't in Idaho anymore.
(Laughter)
This made me rethink the design, construction and maintenance processes
needed to make mobility accessible and available for everyone everywhere.
We needed both the construction materials and the skills to be available locally
and inexpensively.
Shipping costs were just too expensive for these rural communities to afford.
So I took a long walk through the village to see what was actually there.
What I found was a bike shop,
several carpenter shops, and a health clinic in this village,
even though they did not have running water, paved roads,
or distributed electricity.
There were plenty of bikes around,
and the carpenter shops made everything the community needed,
mainly with basic hand tools.
These resources -
locally available materials and locally available skills,
combined with global experts -
were all we needed to make mobility a reality.
Today, we focus on facilitating mobility solutions
that use bicycle parts and wood
and can be built
in any environment, in any location.
With the do-it-together approach, a used bike, and wood,
this team can create mobility solutions for any environment.
Not only can this approach be customized for the user's specific needs,
it will allow them to maintain their equipment
for the rest of their lives.
And maybe more importantly, once they build one,
they'll get the confidence to make improvements,
share those improvements with others,
and maybe provide a local business, creating mobility solutions.
On stage with me are three mobility solutions
that can be built in a weekend, using bicycle parts and wood;
no welding or electricity is required.
These are all user-constructed.
They come standard with accessories, like cup holders,
and since they're built locally, the shipping is always free.
The yard chair is an outdoor chair
that allows you to access your yard with ease,
and when you get to a shady tree, you can sit down and enjoy the view.
The Go is a gardening off-road wheelchair that lets you get out into your yard
and throughout the community.
It's built by taking a standard indoor chair
and converting it to an outdoor chair.
You can build your own chair, but this is an easy, quick fix
if you want to get started.
By adding the front wheel to the existing wheelchair,
it can handle rough terrain and keeps the small, front castor wheels
of the wheelchair from digging in on loose dirt.
Added storage is a bonus, using the handlebars and a basket.
It takes only one cut of the bike, a small amount of wood,
and a few bolts to build this gardening wheelchair.
The front wheel is easily removable, so when you get back on hard surfaces,
you can interact with tables much easier,
and you can go back in the house if you want, but leave the mud outside.
You can create better off-road mobility
by adding standard bicycle wheels with the spokes removed
to the existing handrims.
In Idaho, we call these "duallys," and they can go almost anywhere.
(Laughter)
Even when it snows.
The Go works great for getting out in your yard and garden
with limited landscape modifications.
The handcycle is key to accessing your community
since it allows you to go further, faster, and carry supplies.
You can make your own wooden seat,
but using a standard chair simplifies the process
and still allows you to customize the seating for your needs.
One unique feature of this handcycle is that when you get to the destination,
the seat elevates or rotates completely around.
This allows for safer transfers,
and you can rotate it around and ride it in reverse,
to access tables and any activity,
without requiring an additional device.
The handcycle works great
for getting to any non-motorized events,
even Burning Man.
(Laughter)
The unique needs and possibilities are endless.
Maybe you need an indoor chair that fits through your existing doorways
and is small enough to turn around in your existing bathroom.
Or an indoor chair with storage and a writing desk,
so you can do your work or homework.
And when you're done, you can fully recline.
(Laughter)
Maybe your child has outgrown their existing wheelchair,
and they want a cool-looking, wooden wheelchair with custom colors,
whatever they want.
Or maybe you've had a stroke,
and you need an indoor, one-armed wheelchair
to get around for a few months while you recover.
And as you're recovering, you may want to go outside.
So you may need a one-armed, outdoor wheelchair,
complete with a wagon to pull your supplies around.
Or you just want to go outside your house,
sit down, and enjoy the flowers.
The yardworker works great for that.
If your buddies want to go kayaking
(Laughter)
and you want to go too,
you can take your gardening off-road wheelchair,
and tow your kayak-watching wheelchair down the dirt road to the lake
and launch the kayak independently if you wish.
For the serious gardeners out there,
you can use a face-down gardening wheelchair.
These work great,
particularly for those tedious, low-to-the-ground tasks.
And the shade is handy also.
If you're a very serious gardener and have a truck garden,
you can use your 12-speed gardening cullivator
(Laughter)
if you need.
Or you just want to go on a long ride with a friend.
These are just a few of the mobility devices
that can be built in a weekend
using bicycle parts
and the do-it-together approach.
With local teams doing it together,
we can enable lifelong mobility solutions,
combining local materials and local skills
with global expertise, collaboration, and training.
In the process, we empower each other,
develop our skills, community, and prosperity.
With a simple bike, some wood, doing it together,
we can change lives.
Thank you.
(Applause)