Transitions is partnering with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to create over 30 wheelchairs for disabled Guatemalans. The collaboration will also serve to conduct important research into the usability and design of MIT’s innovative new wheelchair design, part of the Leveraged Freedom Chair Project.
Amos Winter, the project’s director and current PhD candidate at MIT, is working closely with the Transitions design team to ensure that the Leveraged Freedom chair is optimized to meet the needs of the Guatemalans it will serve. Transitions, in collaboration with Amos’ team at MIT, will conduct a lengthy trial in which Guatemalan users will compare the LFC with various different models of chairs that are currently in use in Guatemala. The goal is to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the LFC, and eventually build a wheelchair that surpasses all others that are currently being used.
Amos and his team will travel to Guatemala this summer to begin production here in Transitions’ very own Wheelchair Workshop. In the meantime we’re busy preparing, acquiring the materials we’ll need to produce the chair, and working with the current clients of our workshop to determine who will be interested in participating in the study.
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