the iBOT wheelchair is now being sold

[SueM in MN]

The iBOT wheelchair that has been on display at Epcot for several years is now beginning to be sold. I read an article in the newspaper a few days ago that said they had final FDA approval to begin sales. The article said the wheelchair will sell for about $29,000. They also mentioned that this wheelchair won't be for everyone; you need to be able to weight shift and lean to do some things with it and you also need to be able to hold onto the stair rail to go up or down stairs.

The Independence Technology Company's website is very interesting. Besides the iBOT, they have information on a power assist manual wheelchair called the iGLIDE and an interesting pressure relief seat called the maxPRO. It's lightweight and uses air in small pockets. I wish I had seen this before we orderd DD's new manaul wheelchair. She uses a Jay gel cushion, but it is heavy and gets cold when it's cold outide (plus one of her gel packs sprung a leak once and made a mess). Regular air seats are too bouncy for her, but this sounds like an improvement over regular gel and air.

 

[BillSears]

Sue,

Thanks for the information. I saw the IBOT chair when I did the tour of the house of the future in July. It looked pretty amazing and I might want to swap for one someday but for now I'll stick to my manual chair.

The manual assist chair is another thing I might consider when I get older but at 44 I'm still going strong so I'll hold off on it for now.

That new seat cushion looks like something I might be interested in too. I currently use a Jay Active and it works great but it is kinda heavy.

 

[SueM in MN]

Yeah, I thought the seat cushion was probably the thing the most people could use. It would be nice to see it though, since a lot of "neat" things look better in pictures than in real life.
I think the iBOT probably will have limited sales because it's a pretty specialized market. The manual assist wheelchair would be good for manual users as they get older (or someone who lives in a place with a lot of challenging hills).

 

[DramaTech]

This is a stop we have to make everytime we go to EPCOT. I love that chair and am purely amazed by what it does. I am in an electric Action II: Arrow Storm Series chair, and don't get me wrong...it's a great chair...but the iBOT is quite possibly the most amazing thing I've ever seen besides my driving controls on my van. I hope the price goes down in several years to where it becomes more affordable!