An MIT student, Amos Winter, is trying to revolutionize the wheelchair. Not only is he trying to improve this vital form of transportation for the disabled, but he wants to make it available for those living in third world countries where wheelchairs are crucially needed but not necessarily affordable or made for the bad roads. The invention has been given the name the Leveraged Freedom Chair. Why that name? Because the chair is powered by hand levers.
Testing the prototype of the Leveraged Freedom Chair since last August, Abdullah Munish of Tanzania is one of six users of the chair in his home country, Kenya and Uganda. Munish lost the use of his legs after a car crash years ago and has since had difficulties navigating his wheelchair along the bumpy and hilly roads of his area. It became so hard that he often stayed inside, losing touch with many family members and friends. With Winter's invention, Munish can now get himself up a hill with ease.
Within the next two years, Winter hopes to get his wheelchair patented and begin producing it in substantial numbers at about $200 each. He also plans to test 30 more in Guatemala this coming summer.
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