Revolutionary Off-Road Wheelchair Opens Up New World Of Exploration
BOSTON (CBS) -- A wheelchair designed at MIT is being heralded as the "mountain bike of wheelchairs."
It's called the Freedom Chair and is the creation of a group of former MIT students, made right here in Massachusetts. And it opens up a whole new world for exploration.
"I was injured in a mountain biking accident in 2014 and I broke my T-5 and T-6 vertebrae so I'm paralyzed from about here, down," says Lindsey Runkel, gesturing from her stomach and below.
The wheelchair has helped Lindsey do things she previously was unable to do.
"It allows me to get out on trails and out in my yard, and it allows me to go places I wouldn't normally be able to go," she says.
"The Freedom chair is the mountain bike of wheelchairs," says Tish Scolnik, one of the inventors.
The chair started out eight years ago as a school project for four MIT students. The challenge was to help disabled people in developing countries move around in a world where pavement is rare. It then morphed into a reinvented wheelchair and a new company called GRIT.
"We've sold just about 100 here in the United States, and overseas in developing countries we've distributed close to 2,000," Scolnik says.
"The secret behind the Freedom chair is our lever drive train," she adds.
Rather than push the wheelchair using a rim around the wheel, levers propel this chair and act as a kind of gear shift depending on where you place your hands.
"(It) gives you a lot more torque, a lot more leverage to power over obstacles," Scolnik says.
The chair is stable, steers easily and can handle all manner of terrain, which is something a regular wheelchair just can't do.
"The hope is that we keep on growing and that there are Freedom chairs all over the country," Scolnik says.
"It means a lot to have a chair like this. I can get out onto dirt paths and go hiking which I couldn't do with my other chair. So it really does open up a lot more opportunities for me," Lindsey says.
The Freedom Chair costs about $3,000 and uses easily replaceable bike parts.
For more information, visit the GRIT Freedom Chair website.