Are they wheelchair or Cars?

Manish Aryal

Totally insane price! PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE tell me why this should cost as much as a Smart Car? Why do these people want to rip people off? I desperately need one but certainly can’t afford it, guess I’ll sit in my stupid lounge chair the rest of my miserable life!!!” was the reaction of a disabled person when he saw these wheelchair price tags.

Normally simple manual wheelchair costs from 18,000 to 35,000 while a simple electric wheelchair costs 3-5 lakhs but an all terrain wheelchair costs 10-25 lakhs and above. In the mean while, Thousands of people are bedridden or are forced within the periphery of their homes because they become persons with disability. Their dreams wishes to have a normal life are all shattered the moment their mobility seizes. Normal wheelchair fail miserably when it encounters an obstacle in the path, if the roads are full of portholes and they get stuck, we are not into the staircase yet which is every wheelchair users nightmare.

2/3 of wheelchair users want to work but cannot because of the mobility problems. Out of 100, 85 people are not satisfied with their wheelchair performance and yet are forced to use the same device due to lack of better options. Every developing country is a victim of under utilizing their potential human resource from disability community because there aren’t enough wheelchair ramps, elevators and smart wheelchair in the market. Steven hawking is physically disabled and he is doing great works in the field of science and technology, so why not give platform to every disabled so that world can get many more intellects like him and the first step in the process is a better wheelchair that provides them freedom of mobility.

Looking at the price range, there seems to be no solution except being carried over. So let’s think why are they so expensive? Isn’t there a cheaper and cost effective solution? I think we need to think in that direction to encourage people and promote them such that world can have a cheaper and better wheelchair that a common people can afford.