End of need for ramps in sight?

Following the coming into force of the Persons with Disabilities Act in June 2004, many landlords of public buildings sought to comply with the law and erected ramps on their property. This made it much easier for people with physical disabilities, for whom climbing stairs had been difficult, to move around many buildings more easily.

However, and as Mr Peter Maina, an electrical and electronics diploma graduate currently working as an intern at the IBM research lab at the Catholic University of East Africa  explains, these ramps also came with their  challenges.

“Some ramps are steep while some extremely long, making it hectic and tiresome for a disabled person. If you look at the footbridges on Thika Road, though they have complied with the Persons with Disabilities Act, they are way too long and it takes time and energy for a disabled person to wheel their way up.”

This realisation, coupled with the hardship he saw one of his disabled friends go through, got him thinking. 

“I saw her struggle to do her work. She was having a hard time moving from place to place and at that time there were no designated points for wheelchairs,” says Mr Maina, adding that his friend’s experience prompted him to go to the Internet and research on how to make an electric wheelchair.

ADJUSTABLE WHEELCHAIR

This saw him develop a fully electric one, which can go up stairs as each of its four wheels is tri-wheel. It has a twistable, self-transforming chassis that enables the user — who is held safely in position by safety belts — to remain  upright so that he or she can reach for an object that is placed higher.

“I thought of the predicament of a teacher confined to a wheelchair struggling to write on a black board that is beyond reach,” says  Mr Maina, adding that with this wheelchair, such a teacher only needs to press a button and the wheelchair will adjust to a relatively straight and comfortable position, enabling them to perform their duties much more easily.

 “It also enables the person to be mobile, independent and comfortable. With the normal wheelchair, one remains seated the whole day, which exposes the disabled person to further complications. With this wheelchair, you can  adjust the back rest to make it flat, so you can use it as a bed.”

“The available electric wheelchairs at that time, and which attempted to perform the tasks I had in mind, were pretty expensive. So I thought of designing something cheaper and more functional,” says Maina. Unfortunately, the friend who was the motivation behind the electric wheelchair died before he developed the prototype, but he says he will carry on with the project. 

He says after he appeared on 'The Trend' on NTV to explain the prototype, a woman called him and asked how she could get the wheelchair, saying that she was a teacher and every time she wanted to write on the blackboard, she would call a student to write as she dictated the notes.

He says the wheelchair will be on the market before the end of this year, and will cost about Sh400,000, which is still cheaper than similar products on  the market, but which cannot perform all the functions his product can.

But while lauding this innovation, Paul Mugambi, a musician and the Nairobi region head of the National Council for Persons with Disability (NCPWD), says more inventions  are needed, adding that the set standards will not be realised if  compliance  is left to property developers alone. “There has been little or no coordination between building contractors, public transport, educational institutions, medical facilities and the NCPWD to ensure that premises are disability friendly.

“Disability compliance is not just about physical accessibility; there is the issue of lifts, doors, especially where to place door knobs, among other important things. Architects and construction engineers should work closely with the disabled and bear in mind that disability can occur to anyone at any time,” Mr Mugambi notes.

However, Mr Maina promises to provide an alternative to ramps with his innovative electric wheelchair.