Hey all! My name is Yader and I'm new to the board. I've read quite a few threads already and think this is a wonderful and supportive community that helps each other out with both emotional and medical concerns.
I'm an Industrial Engineer currently pursuing a Masters also in Industrial Engineering and I'm enrolled in a course on Innovation in Engineering Design. This class is meant to help us think creatively for a change. In order to be able to successfully design a product creatively we're encouraged to become experts in that area first.
Which brings me to the topic I would like help with. We are to sketch 30 ideas for products that would help a paraplegic person enjoy water based activities at the beach. To do this, I would like to better understand what daily life with paraplegia is like? What becomes particularly tough in both routine and recreational activities?
Getting down to the beach itself would be a challenge. There are expensive specialized wheels and wheelchairs for this. There are also flat mats that can be laid out, so that a normal wheelchair can roll over them. Those are pricey, too. I haven't had the fun of going to a beach since my injury. I haven't even gotten to get in a bathtub since my injury, so I'm not speaking from experience,...just from the photos and reading I've done.
Non-expert friends could probably get me from my wheelchair to the ground, and from the ground back up into my wheelchair, but maybe you could come up with some kind of a plastic or rubbery sled that could go in and out of the water. So: out of wheelchair, onto the sled. Drag me on sled out into the water and turn me loose. I have a short swim. Then friends put the sled under me while we are all in the water and get me back up onto the beach. Drag me back to my wheelchair and put me in it. This honestly sounds like fun and doable to me. You'd have to design the sled,..all plastic, I would assume, with no moving parts. Maybe some handles or grabable edges. I hope you sell a lot of them, and get an A in your course.
'There's always something magic, there's always something true. And when you really, really need it the most, that's when rock 'n roll dreams come true.'
What particularly gets tough for me is to sit on awkwardly designed wheelchair just to include more functionalities to it. I do like to see my wheelchair fancy as it is part of me. It is tough when it's wheels are struck and I had topush them out. Even when someone tries to push it, wheels wont come out easily and makes me to slip a bit from my sitting position on chair.
This is mainly because of smaller front wheels. Smaller front wheels are good on flat surfaces but are worst on muddy/sand/hilly/beach/rocky surfaces.
As per context, I want to put my thoughts for beach surface wheelchair remedies.
or this..
Now, I need to float in water after going there. So, it should be able to float in water with me. So, there should be some air bags attached to wheels that can open on its own when I wanted to or should have a provision to attached airbags to it.
Airbags are like this.
That could be designed to give comfortable balance to float in water just as water tube gives to AB.
Without getting into technical specifications and design we had installed wooden ramps on sandy beaches, parking facilities, plastic chairs with wide wheels for sand use and chair hoists, around the island of Malta, the latter that enable wheelchair persons to enter and exit open sea. Issues at hand for chair hoists were cost, earmarking of jetties protected from strong seas and design specifications that addressed the following: safety, user friendly, robustness and low maintenance. Due to legal aspects and quality standards we did not create our own designs due to limited numbers needed cost and quality assurance certification. We opted for an already existing and certified make used in pools in which we modified specs for sea water use. this was a cheaper solution as design only for a prototype was very costly. The design company also wanted exclusive rights on its design to.
Again i had proposed a manual operated winch instead of a battery one due to lower maintenance issues and the need for power use in charging but my board peers went for a battery operated one. hoists are installed from May to October and taken off during winter season.
Without getting into technical specifications and design we had installed wooden ramps on sandy beaches, parking facilities, plastic chairs with wide wheels for sand use and chair hoists, around the island of Malta, the latter that enable wheelchair persons to enter and exit open sea. Issues at hand for chair hoists were cost, earmarking of jetties protected from strong seas and design specifications that addressed the following: safety, user friendly, robustness and low maintenance. Due to legal aspects and quality standards we did not create our own designs due to limited numbers needed cost and quality assurance certification. We opted for an already existing and certified make used in pools in which we modified specs for sea water use. this was a cheaper solution as design only for a prototype was very costly. The design company also wanted exclusive rights on its design to.
Again i had proposed a manual operated winch instead of a battery one due to lower maintenance issues and the need for power use in charging but my board peers went for a battery operated one. hoists are installed from May to October and taken off during winter season.
What a great project. The chair hoists sound very interesting. I'm trying to picture where they'd be situated - in the car parks?
Getting down to the beach itself would be a challenge. There are expensive specialized wheels and wheelchairs for this. There are also flat mats that can be laid out, so that a normal wheelchair can roll over them. Those are pricey, too. I haven't had the fun of going to a beach since my injury. I haven't even gotten to get in a bathtub since my injury, so I'm not speaking from experience,...just from the photos and reading I've done.
Non-expert friends could probably get me from my wheelchair to the ground, and from the ground back up into my wheelchair, but maybe you could come up with some kind of a plastic or rubbery sled that could go in and out of the water. So: out of wheelchair, onto the sled. Drag me on sled out into the water and turn me loose. I have a short swim. Then friends put the sled under me while we are all in the water and get me back up onto the beach. Drag me back to my wheelchair and put me in it. This honestly sounds like fun and doable to me. You'd have to design the sled,..all plastic, I would assume, with no moving parts. Maybe some handles or grabable edges. I hope you sell a lot of them, and get an A in your course.
Vintage, I sympathize with not having been in a bathtub since the injury. A good soak sounds absolutely wonderful! I have, however, had the luxury of visiting the beach, even if I don't go into the water. You're right about those beach chairs - great if you can afford one or find one available for use, but most beaches still don't have them. Our local beach here does provide a beach wheelchair that can be pushed by an able-bodied helper, but I've never been able to use one. The problem is the sand. Even though there's a wooden slat path down to the beach, it snakes over a pretty big sand dune and is constantly covered with blowing sand. I think the staff at the beach do try to keep it clear, but if not many people are using the chair, they tend to simply ignore the build up until it's completely impassable. I still haven't found a beach here on Cape Cod with a flat sandy beach. I know they exist in places, but I haven't had the chance yet to find them (any suggestions welcome, folks). When I was in Maine last year, though, we found a beach on Drake Island (not sure if that was the name, but I think so) which was a long flat stretch of beach where I was lucky enough to use the Freewheel (you might want to look at this product, Yader). I had an absolute blast. It was freezing cold, the middle of January, no one but us on the beach, and me and the dog took off with my husband trying to keep up behind us. I finally had to stop when my rear wheels sank into the wet sand close to the water. The problem on that beach was getting the chair over the rocks between the parking lot and the sand. Going down to the beach was okay, but going back up we needed to flag down a guy walking his dog and ask if he could help us get back to our car (fun, fun, fun!). The sled idea sounds better and better, vintage, yader, are you getting all this? Good luck.
One of the biggest problems on our tiny island is parking hence we made this possible.I'm a bit disappointed that some chair users did not opt to use the equipment provided and not venture out to our seas. the distance is only 5 mins to a suitable beach. the more people use them the more we can put on pressure to install more. i love the chair hoists and the open sea. Like you vintage i use a shower not a bath.
'There's always something magic, there's always something true. And when you really, really need it the most, that's when rock 'n roll dreams come true.'