Rolling Into the New Year

The Whirlwind Network of wheelchair builders was born in 1980 when Ralf Hotchkiss met a group of 4 disabled men who shared one wheelchair in a hospital in Managua, Nicaragua. They hatched the idea of setting up a shop in Managua that would build wheelchairs made from locally available parts, be locally repairable, and which would require little initial capital to get started.

This is the very best sort of appropriate technology: power in the hands of the people who need it the most.

WWI's RoughRider wheelchair Manual wheelchair with wide bicycle tires, very wide casters, and gracefully curving frame.

The first design was near completion by 1983, having undergone numerous prototype revisions and having been tested over hundreds of miles by many different riders. Since then, the Network has expanded to hundreds of organizations and individuals in more than 50 countries around the world and includes disability activists, rehabilitation professionals, and international development non-governmental organizations. The Network has supported the cross-fertilization of new ideas and designs generated around the world. The active involvement of wheelchair riders in design and production has been integral to the Network’s success.

The Whirlwind Roughrider is inexpensive to manufacture, made from widely available stock materials. Unlike the second-hand chrome wheelchairs donated by well-meaning first world countries, Whirlwind Chairs are designed for dusty dirt roads and easy maintenance. As Marc Krizack put in his in-depth examination of the shortcomings of first-world wheelchair donation:

Providing wheelchairs is not about wheelchairs. It is about providing people with the one thing they need to move out into their own communities—to go where the action is. It is about integrating people with disabilities into their society.