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This wheelchair gives leg up to disabled

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Bergamo: After nearly 20 years working with wheelchair-bound youngsters, Mario Vigentini wanted to revolutionise their quality of life, inventing a device that raises up users so they are face-to-face with those standing.


The Italian drew inspiration from the Segway — the two-wheeled, self-balancing, electric vehicle that allows visitors to nip around cities without walking — and came up with the “MarioWay”, a hands-free, two-wheeled kneeling chair.


With its high seat, it allows users to do everything from ordering a coffee at a bar to plucking a book off a high shelf.


The Italian government was so impressed it proudly showed off the chair to the G7 transport ministers in June.


The 45-year-old found working with young people with mental and physical disabilities “an extraordinary adventure”, but was disheartened by the prejudice they faced.


Users of traditional wheelchairs are seated so that “the organs in the upper part of the trunk are compressed”, while “almost the whole weight rests on the ischium” — the lower and back part of the hip bone.


But for users of Vigentini’s invention, “the upper part of the trunk is straightened”, strengthening muscles which go unused in traditional wheelchairs.


The design means that tasks that have been


very challenging for traditional wheelchair users — such as opening doors or carrying a glass of water to a table — can be carried out with relative ease.


In the search for cool, his team has even swapped notes with a company that customises Harley Davidson motorbikes.


And one day he hopes able-bodied people will use MarioWay too as a means of getting about town — much like a bicycle or Segway — which could help make mobility differences, between those who are disabled and those who are not, a thing of the past.


— AFP


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