Wheelchair Design Welcomes Rough Terrain – Leveraged Freedom Chair

How often have we come across terrain that was unfriendly to wheelchair mobility? The amazing design of the Leveraged Freedom Chair does away with limitations of the conventional wheelchair. Designed to give the freedom of mobility almost anywhere, the bicycle components used in the design with chain-driven engineering and use of upper body strength enables users to travel 10-20% faster on off-road terrain. Changing gears is as simple as using levers that can also be removed and stored on the chair, which allows the Leveraged Freedom Chair to conform to a standard wheelchair when indoors or on solid terrain. A bonus to this wheelchair design is that maintenance and repairs can be done by any bike shop.

According to the U.S. Agency for International Development, 20 million people in developing countries require wheelchairs. The Leveraged Freedom Chair has been in development since 2008. It was designed by Amos Winter, Jake Childs, and Jung Tak.  The Leveraged Freedom Wheelchair has won several awards such as first place prize in the MIT IDEAS competition and was a winner in the Scientific American World Changing Ideas Video Contest. The team behind the Leveraged Freedom Chair developed two models of the wheelchair – a version for developing countries and another for first-world countries. The Leveraged Freedom Chair has a targeted cost of about $200, far less than most commercial options, and has an open-source design to encourage investment.

It will be interesting to see what the Leveraged Freedom Chair can do for the U.S. as well. Every day we deal with terrain issues such as mud, snow, and leaves. This lighter wheelchair design would be easier and more compact. Think of all the off-road opportunities and travel destinations that would no longer be limited by unfriendly terrain.

For more information and updates on progress and development of the Leveraged Freedom Chair visit http://mlab.mit.edu/lfc/Welcome.html