Max’s most recent campaign is to save the greatest advance ever in wheelchair technology from ending up on the scrapheap, along with the hopes of wheelchair users the world over.
The Save the iBot group is made up of advocates of the iBot wheelchair – a ‘personal mobility device’, with Segway gyroscopic technology, which can climb stairs and, transformer-like, balance at eye level on two wheels.
Visit Save the iBot website
Join Save the iBot Facebook page
The iBot was developed at huge cost in the US by Johnson & Johnson. J&J has decided to stop making it, for commercial reasons and, after fulfilling a statutory number of years, wil withdraw support entirely at the end of 2013.
The iBot’s cutting edge technology gave added impetus to many R&D departments at wheelchair manufacturers, enhancing the prospects of better products for all wheelchair users, and not just the few who could afford the iBot.Tragically, the iBot’s withdrawal means that the speed of developments will probably resume at a snail’s pace.
iBot owners achieved an improved quality of life overnight, and where they had jobs, their job productivity improved.
Wheelchair users commonly say that other people find it difficult to ‘see beyond the chair’. iBot users tend not to have this problem, because the chair encourages interaction with the person in it.
There is a body of opinion that thinks J&J’s behaviour here is extremely sad, especially given the fact that such a group of people has spent so much of their money (it is expensive) on such a vital piece of equipment. Moreover, it should be expected to last more than a few years!
Fans of the iBot are now banding together to to find a new investor.
Watch the iBot in action (Select a movie to watch from the images below)
