Ironic thing is, I signed up to "Instructables" so I could make usable footrests for my chair*

[capri0mni]

So, I've been on the Instructables.com mailing list for a few years, now, which means I get a newsletter in my email every Thursday with links to specific projects that they're promoting that week. Today, I opened the email and saw this lovely offering first on the list.


Psycho Scooter Scramble is a blind-driving electric wheelchair game. It consists of two riders, strapped into electric wheelchairs, and two blindfolded pilots, who remotely control the wheelchairs from the sidelines based on information given over headset by their driver.

The basic mechanic is simple: players must drive across the court to get a ball from a stand, then drive back across to put the ball in a hoop. This action is repeated until all four balls have been scored or the timer runs out.

Since there is an inevitable disconnect between the pilots’ steering and their teammates’ intentions, wheelchairs zigzag across the court at high speeds, colliding with each other, ball stands, the scoreboard, and most everything else; all the while, taking full advantage of the custom steel bumpers.

Required equipment includes two (2) fully functioning motorized wheelchairs for the hacker to fiddle with their electronic control systems.

I spent a good bit of time debating whether or not to leave a snarky comment, like:

"So -- have you asked people who actually need to use motorized wheelchairs every day to play this game with you, or are they just big toys, as far as you're concerned?"

But in the end, I decided that that audience is one that just would not hear me, and it wasn't worth the spoons required. So I'm cranking here, instead.

---
*The thing is: I need more than instructions. I need a proper work space, and someone with the dexterity and ability that I don't have to carry out the instructions, neither of which are available. So, after this, I'm seriously considering unsubscribing.

Comments

[dharma_slut]

I get the newsletter too, and had exactly the same reaction.

[capri0mni]

It is really outrageous when you consider the ridiculous amount of time and expense it takes to get a chair that needs legitimate service repairs at your standard medical supply places (like six weeks and $400 to get a seat cushion replaced is not that uncommon) -- for something people need to get around their own houses, or down the street to the grocery store.

I'd have a lot more respect for these hackers if they devoted just a fraction of their obvious skill, creativity and time to actually fixing chairs in a way that matters for people.

[dharma_slut]

If you know the dw user badgerbag, she might have some resources or help you track something down. She uses a chair too, and she is so good at that stuff!

[capri0mni]

Thanks. I'll keep an eye out for her...

(One sign on how well or poorly wheelchair footrests are designed in general, is to take a look at second-hand wheelchairs sold at yard sales and such most of them are sans footrests...)

[jesse_the_k]

While I generally agree with you about footrest vulnerability (see the stack of loner footrests in the basement), footrest removal does make the chair envelope significantly smaller. I've been surprised by how many elders can foot-propel themselves.

But back to the point: you are totally right! If you're unsubbing anyway then flouncing with a monstrous emission could be a little satisfying?

[capri0mni]

If you're unsubbing anyway then flouncing with a monstrous emission could be a little satisfying?

Well, it might... If I had ever posted a single comment on any project at all since I joined. But since I have not... Flouncing only works if people knew you were even in the room up until that point. So anything I say now would most likely be dismissed with some version of: "Man! these crips have no sense of humor, do they?"

As for the foot propelling: makes total sense to me, if you still have voluntary control of your legs (which I do not have), and the only thing that makes walking difficult is weight bearing and/or balance staying vertical. Leg muscles are larger and more efficient than arm muscles, and foot-propelling keeps your hands off your wheels, so keeps your hands clean.

And yes, re: smaller envelope.

Also: quicker escape. It's one thing to demonstrate to an OT in the wheelchair showroom that you are capable of bending down, lifting your feet off the footrests and swinging them out of the way, in order to transfer out of the chair. It's another thing entirely to do it with a full bladder in a fast food restaurant's badly-designed bathroom stall after you've been on the road for 3 hours ....