Alternatives to wheelchairs for children

The first day Ronan drove his wheelchair out to the playground himself at breaktime to be with his friends, his class broke into spontaneous applause. There wasn’t a dry eye in the yard.

A power chair brings amazing independence. I just think we should be getting technology to do much more.

Independence (with technology circa 2005)

Wheelchairs give amazing independence. Ronan got his wheelchair three years ago. The Mini Zippy is a 100kg mid-wheel power chair with an adapted seat. Ronan is 6 and weights 22kg. By any measure, the weight and size of the wheelchair is a significant over specification for Ronan, but the options are limited. Despite the increasing power density of batteries and the high torque and low power consumption engines used in things like hover boards, eskateboards and ebikes — wheelchair technology is a good generation behind most other mobility categories. Depressingly, there are electric golf trollies with more technology packed into them than an electric wheelchair.

Ronan has learned to drive his wheelchair unbelievably well. But, the chair is designed for weights up to 100kg. Ronan drives with his hand resting on the joystick and moves it by pivoting his whole body around to drive the stick in the direction he wants it to go. He has to be careful so as not to injure a friend, class mate or passerby given the power and weight of the chair. There are other controllers available in the market but the conventional joystick is attractive as it is pretty universal as an input device. The ability to use a joystick opens up more options for him in the long run.

Why would it be nice to have an alternative to a wheelchair for around the house?

Ronan doesn’t use his wheelchair in the house. There are a few reasons for this.

• He likes to be out of his chair as much as possible
• Rolling and laying on the ground is great exercise for him
• He feels closer to his brothers when he’s out of the chair and in the action
• The chair can’t go everywhere he wants to go in the house

There are other considerations too

• Moving a power chair from indoor to outdoor requires some degree of wheel cleaning. Especially given Ronan’s love of off-road
• The chair is very powerful. A slight miscalculation causes real damage to the surrounding area or to another child

Given all these problems, I have been trying to find some better alternatives for around the house for Ronan. I have been keeping a list of ideas that I want to try. See below:

My list of ideas for transport around the house

• Skateboard with motor. Steer by leaning.
• Small mid wheel wheelchair. Child sized
• Two wheel bodyboard like “skimmer” that is joystick driven*
• Sweater that is low friction or has wheels so that he can more easily propel himself forward
• Some form of quadruped that he could ride

If you have any other ideas. Leads or suggestions on things please share in the comments.

Trials so far

I’ll add stories below of the progress I’m making with some of my experiments over time.