Wheelchair designed from bicycle parts helps people with disabilities in developing regions around the world. Designed originally by CalTech students, it has recently been introduced through a pilot project to people in Guatemala through the non-profit Intelligent Mobility International, who won the Breakthrough Award by Popular Mechanics in 2008 for it´s innovative design. The pilot program has been “working closely with Guatemalans to produce a simple, inexpensive chair made from common materials found worldwide – most notably bicycle parts.”

American-made wheelchairs are available, but in a country where families make an average of $200 per month, it’s virtually impossible to buy a standard, non-motorized wheelchair from the US, which cost around $400 – $2000. And even when they do get an American chair, they rarely last says Dan Oliver (Part of IMI´s design team). “They’re made for hospitals, which have smooth floors,” he explains. “So in a place like Guatemala, which has rough terrain, they tend to break down quickly, in less than a month. And most of the parts are all custom-made, so they have to send away for replacement parts, which are expensive.”

More importantly, if the wheels, bearings or brakes fail, the customer can take them to any bike shop in the world for repair. “We had a student take a broken chair to a remote village,” says Oliver, “And he was able to replace the bearings for less than $3.”

Guatemala has been chosen for their pilot program because it ” not only has a large population of disabled (approximately 55,000), but that wheelchairs are extremely rare. “A lot of people are forced to get around in wheelbarrows or carts,” says Dan Oliver, a Caltech student who joined shortly after the project began in September 2006. “Or they just drag themselves across the ground when they can.”
Quoted from Design 21: Social Design Network