'Liberty 2000" at Innoventions East

[Safari Steve]

I just checked out the House of Innoventions exhibit at Epcot, and saw the coolest thing I've ever witnessed at WDW. It wasn't a parade, show, or ride... It was a power wheelchair! The tour is pretty cool anyhow, but the finale is a demonstration of the Liberty 2000 chair in the "back yard". The chair climbs stairs, raises, and (the coolest part) Balances on 2 wheels to add about 2.5 feet of height. The girl gave it a good hard shove, and rather than topple, the chair moved a bit, compensated, and stayed upright. (it even stayed up with one wheel on a flat surface and one on a steep incline. How cool is that?!!! Maybe I was just impressed because I'm not that familiar with wheelchairs, but I think it's definitely worth a look. The exhibit is located in Innoventions East. It's fully accessible, fairly quick, and the guides are very knowledgeable and are happy to chat afterwards. The seat was like 3.5 feet off the ground... WOW!

[SueM in MN]

Thanks for the report, Safari Steve. My DH and I saw that wheelchair when we visited WDW by ourselves this summer. We thought it was pretty cool. I can't even guess how expensive it must be though. My DD's regualr power wheelchair with no special features, cost about as much as my other DD's 2000 VW beetle.

[lisapooh]

Steve when I saw that wheelchair my eyes popped out of my face. I was literally drooling over it. The guide was a friend of ours and looked at my face and commented that I really needed one of those.
Unfortunately the cost of these are very high! Ouch. Not in my budget right now.

[Wheelsie]

If I had won the 280 mill powerball in Oct DH said I could make that chair our first purchase...saw it in Dec.....isnt it FAB!! :)

[jdremann]

I haven't seen this at Disney yet (will in November) but I'm pretty sure you are referring to the Johnson & Johnson Independence 3000 IBOT Transporter. This link takes you to a place that links news stories about it - http://www.wheelchairnet.org/ProdServ/Products/independ3000.html

[Safari Steve]

May be a similar product, but the one on display at Epcot is called the Liberty 2000. I wrote it down on my map.

[jdremann]

Just a note. I was just down there and confirmed that it really is the IBOT 3000 that I thought it might be. Really cool chair. They did a demo with it going up on 2 wheels and compensating when pushed. I filmed it.

[pugdog]

Johnson & johnson does have the marketing rights to the chair. The retail for the chir is going to be around the $25000 to $30000 range according to a 20/20 report I saw about 2 years ago. So $40000 now, It should be on the market soon.