this post was submitted on 06 Mar 2024
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ
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I'm imagining your shock when I tell you the cost of my entire wheelchair, which is a manual wheelchair with push assistance (like an e-bike).
Si what you're saying is that we need open source wheelchairs?
For fucks sake why isn't all assitive devices open source already. Making profit over disabled people misery is such a evil thing ! The capitalist are so fucking out of touch it's crazy. Kids dying, disabled people pressed for every penny they have etc... how the fuck did we let things go this bad.
Captive market. Easy prey.
Call it what you want, those with no morals have no boundaries. This is what laws are supposed to prevent, but y'know, the sociopaths have normalised greed and gluttony, and made it the "dream" of a nation.
I wouldn't be surprised if the reason behind no open source is some stupid legislation for 'reasons'.
My colleague built an ultrasound walking stick for his wife, but can't even give units to the local sight-impaired community organization due to regulations... He's given up on getting his design certified.
Open source wheelchairs; and a community of variously abled makers who can come together and build assemblies that are "not medical devices" but come together easily into something that could be used as such.
Speaking strictly for the US, and as a non-lawyer - I'm inclined to think that an open source wheelchair would probably sail right through the 510k process, but... Still doesn't make that process cheap by any means.
I've had similar thoughts re: CPAP/APAP machines, neither the SW nor the HW is brutally complex / poorly understood. Pretty straightforward stuff mostly. But trying to distribute a thing like that even as plans is just asking for a C&D from the FDA, I'd expect.
Insurance companies: you wouldn’t download a wheelchair.
Mine is also manual, with a push assist(smart drive) its MSRP is 16k!
The software is also really stupid, you have to use a stupid smart watch to control it! You can get other controls(for some functions only) but they didn't come with the chair without additional costs. The smart watch sucks and my better watch which is also WearOS can't download the app from the store for some reason... I'd much rather be able to just connect my phone directly.
Most people in my disability community use the smart drive and always have issues! It's why I didn't wanna make the change, also the manual bit when the smart drive isn't on is still too hard for me. But my wheels are like 20kg now which also suck. Anyway, I keep hearing my friends say the same about the smart watch and then it breaking and others recommending letting them build a button on the chair for the drive because the watch KEEPS BREAKING. I have so many strong feelings about all of this honestly.
I may have had a mental breakdown when I still hadn't found a cute backpack after 5 years, that I truly loved and was my style. Lol.