The industry for mobility chairs consisting of wheelchairs and mobility scooters for the mobility-impaired disabled among us is a thriving business that has steadily grown to offer a wider variety mobility aids to suits different needs.

For physical injuries below the waist sustained from accidents or wars to medical neuromuscular conditions that render the legs too feeble to walk, mobility chairs with wheels have been helping millions attain a certain degree of independent mobility that would not be possible without them.

Progressive countries like the UK have legislated mandates recognizing the mobility rights of the disabled and have implemented laws and ordinances specifying the extent of government involvement in promoting the mobility rights of the disabled. They have specified government healthcare assistance as well as the public infrastructures and building codes that allow unhampered access of wheelchair-bound invalids by way of walkway ramps and lifts that bridge elevated structures to facilitate ingress and egress of the disabled.

A Growing Market

The market for wheelchairs and scooters have grown not so much because there are now more invalids, but more on the choices offered in terms of styling and sophistication. For sure, where before, most mobility chairs for sale are generic and limited to the traditional look of wheelchairs, you now have options that bring the wheelchair to state-of-the-art mobility equipment bordering on the robotics.

Ergonomics and aesthetics have found their place in the design of wheelchairs and mobility scooters that elevate them as fashion accessory apart from being competent and efficient mobility aids.

So-called smart wheelchairs can actually think and navigate by sensors and AI-based computing software used in robotic application. Paralytics from the neck down as well as quadriplegics who have lost all limbic functions can now benefit form these special computerized wheelchairs that basically encase them with near-robotic features.

Slight facial movements picked by ultra-sensitive sensors can control navigation while infrared and laser sensors around navigate them clear from any obstruction even if the control is clumsily done. Their fuzzy logic can also learn the usual travel paths that invalid takes.

Needless to say, these computerized wheelchairs can cost a fortune and it is doubtful if Medicare or health insurance companies can cover them. It won’t be surprising that only the wealthiest families can afford them. And being new, there are hardly any used or secondhand smart wheelchairs. And for sure, they’d still cost even when used. Hopefully, over the next few years, in the same way that computers have steadily grown inexpensive, these smart wheelchairs will define the mobility aid landscape and get more affordable.