Digital Technology, to Revolutionise Wheelchair Provision with Motivation

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), of the estimated 70 million people who needed wheelchairs globally, only 10% had access to them. In many low- to middle-income countries, especially in rural areas where central government services were limited and access to appropriate wheelchairs was particularly difficult, wheelchair provision heavily depended on the charitable work of NGOs operating in the country or smaller satellite public clinics. Unfortunately, most of these local centres were poorly stocked. They relied on periodic bulk deliveries of standard and configurable wheelchairs, which were designed to cater to the majority rather than the individual.

Over the previous two years, Motivation had been testing how they could use additive manufacturing to better inform their design and manufacturing processes and apply it to wheelchair provision. With funding from Google.org, Motivation successfully demonstrated the extent to which they could tailor seating solutions for people with disabilities. Working with clinicians in remote locations, they showed how digital measurements of patients could be taken, and high-quality personalised postural support devices could be printed from an online catalogue of pre-designed Computer Aided Design (CAD) components. This new approach and system were successfully trialled with local service providers in India and informed the next stage of Motivation’s exciting and potentially ground-breaking work to develop the next generation of wheelchair provision for low- to middle-income countries.

Motivation then pushed the boundaries of innovation even further. Engineers, designers, and clinicians at the UK-based international NGO developed a new system that allowed service providers to automatically design and locally manufacture wheelchairs of custom shapes and sizes, according to the individual needs of their clients, using 3D printed components made from locally procured materials and parts. As part of the AT2030 programme, the Global Disability Innovation Hub supported Motivation in testing their new provision system in Kenya to evaluate the quality of the new designs and understand how distributed manufacturing through 3D printing could augment current wheelchair service provision models. This novel approach could improve the availability of made-to-measure wheelchairs everywhere, particularly in areas that traditionally suffered from the centralisation of services and reliance upon international aid. Furthermore, distributed manufacturing of wheelchairs and assistive devices could benefit not only people with disabilities but also local communities as a whole, thanks to the creation of new networks and work opportunities.