All terrain wheelchair made from bike parts offers more than just mobility

A short term injury inspired a redesign of the traditional wheelchair by an industrial designer who grew up in Kenya, where one in two hundred disabled people lives without access to any form of mobility.

Janna Deeble was a fit and active student in the UK and had little cause to dwell on the plight of Letu, a Samburu tribesman disabled by Polio he knew as a child, until a broken leg left him dependent on a wheelchair.

"Even in a city designed for wheelchair use with kerb cutouts and ramps and lifts it was infuriating, I got stuck the whole time and my wheelchair was just useless and this led me to think well, if I'm experiencing these problems here, how bad must it be for Letu?" Deeble said.

The experience inspired the SafariSeat, an off-road hand-powered rethink of the wheelchair.

"SafariSeat is a wheelchair designed for people in developing countries and what makes it unique is firstly the fact that it's made from local materials and bike parts which means that anyone will be able to fix it, secondly that it's incredibly good off-road. It has a mechanism which mimics car suspension meaning that all wheels remain on the ground for maximum stability. And thirdly that it's open source which means that anyone in the world will be able take the designs and build SafariSeats for their community."

Deeble says his patent pending design improves the biomechanical efficiency of wheelchairs, using two levers for power and speed, and will help more than just its user.

"SafariSeat benefits people by giving them independence through mobility and this allows them to take care of their kids, to get jobs, to become active members of society. And really mobility is far more than movement. It is the key that unlocks access to a life beyond the confines of your own home," he said.

The plan is to make SafariSeat's blueprints 'open source' to make the biggest impact and help as many people as possible.

"Open Source means that the designs will be totally free and we're doing this because we want SafariSeat to help as many people as possible. Our aim is that anyone in the world will be able to take the plans and build SafariSeats for people in their community, both helping people with disabilities and creating jobs for local people," Deeble said.

A Kickstarter campaign has raised more than 90,000 pounds ($115,000) despite an original target of 30,000 pounds ($38,300), with 70 percent of that money going on development and manufacture of SafariSeats and the open source toolkit.

"We're raising funds on Kickstarter to do two things. The first is to make as many SafariSeats as possible and the second is to translate the blueprints into an easy to understand manual that will use diagrams to transcend language barriers meaning that anyone will be able to build it, no matter where they live, no matter what language they speak," Deeble said.

The extra money means the team plan to train more workshops in Kenya and expand into Uganda and Tanzania, eventually taking the SafariSeat to war zones and the rest of the world. — Reuters