Overview: Over the past seven months working with Whirlwind Wheelchairs International, an organization that “make[s] it possible for every person in the developing world who needs a wheelchair to obtain one that will lead to maximum personal independence and integration into society. WWI is currently developing a children’s wheelchair that could also do the same for the youth.
Problem: The Whirlwind Roughrider wheelchair is not personalized to each child user so that they can feel ownership of their chair.
The Whirlwind Roughrider wheelchair for children does not accommodate all needs; such as a work and eating area, interaction, storage, etc.
Purpose: The purpose of the study is to develop accessories to in order to customize child wheelchair to each user.
The purpose of this study is to develop a set of add-ons allowing children to customize the wheelchairs to suit their daily needs.
Sub problems:
- What are the best accessories in order to customize the chair?
- What materials can be easily sourced by the manufacturers in respective countries?
- How are the accessories to be attached to on the chair?
- Can one accessory accommodate multiple functions?
- Comparative products may not necessarily accommodate for the Whirlwind wheelchair.
- What activities do children engage in when in wheelchairs?
- Ergonomics?
- Cost?
- Ease of installation/assembly?
Users; Stakeholders; Beneficiaries: Third world country children that are in need of manual wheelchairs; Whirlwind Wheelchairs; all child wheelchair users
Environment/Location: Primary WWI nations that are receiving distribution
References: Whirlwind Wheelchairs
o Ralf Hotchkiss, founder
o Chris Howard, designer
o Alida Lindsley; designer
o Mark Krizack, Director
o Bob Incerti, Instructor
o Cliff Young, OTR/L, Sr. Occupational Therapist
o Professor Hsiao-Yun Chu
Hypotheses:
- The wheelchair lacks a lap tray that is functional.
A lap tray can be used for activities, in the home and school where child will mainly be using the chair; socializing; as support for a child who lacks trunk function and back support.
- The wheelchair needs tools so that the owner can fix their own chair.
If the user’s chair breaks down they have no way of repairing it on the spot. A tool kit that comes with the chair that is compact and mobile would be useful for that reason.
- The chair does not have a cup holder.
A cup holder could allow the user to have more free hands to wheel their chair and carry other things that will prevent spillage.
No comments:
Post a Comment