•Notícia

ESEIAAT students Bernat Villa and Adrià Sallés have designed what they call a 'Do-it-yourself wheelchair' and built the device using plumbing materials. The chair, which is highly functional and stands up to use on any kind of terrain, was developed for an Industrial Design and Product Development Engineering bachelor's thesis supervised by Tomeu Ventayol, an ESEIAAT professor and researcher with the UPC’s International Centre for Numerical Methods in Engineering (CIMNE), who proposed that the students create something practical and useful. The original chair built by the students is made out of a PVC pipe bought at an ironmonger’s shop, two bicycle wheels, two supermarket trolley wheels and nuts and bolts, and the total cost of the materials used was €70. The students developed the wheelchair design for users in developing countries. “It could be made using whatever materials are most readily available in each region. In fact, the idea is that people close to the end user should be able to build, assemble and disassemble it themselves”, they said.

Another advantage of this practical innovation is the assembly time: “Anyone can put our chair together or take it apart in a quarter of an hour if they have the material they need. The first time, they just need to take a look at a very easy-to-follow tutorial we’ve developed”, said the students. The design of the DIY wheelchair includes two sizes, Standard and Kids, and the weight of the assembled chair ranges from 15 to 20 kg. The useful life of either model is from three to five years under normal conditions of use. A set of tools for assembling the chair is provided, along with spare parts in case repairs need to be made. Once put together, it performs like any conventional wheelchair and offers the same level of comfort. It has a seat cushion, footrest, push handle, backrest and wheels with handrims so the user can propel the chair and be more independent.

As they worked on designing their wheelchair, the students had three objectives in mind: to contribute to the social inclusion of disabled people in Third World countries; to improve mobility for people with limited resources; and to encourage and facilitate the use of locally available materials to make the chair. As a result, the project was included in the Isidre Esteve Foundation’s 'Do-it-Yourself' programme, which aims to use engineering to provide tools that improve the lives of people in the Third World and promote physical and leisure activities.

In the presentation document for their bachelor’s thesis, the students provided statistics from a report on disability produced by the World Health Organization, according to which some 70 million people around the world need wheelchairs. Of these, only 15.5% can afford one. According to the same report, in India, for example, 47.8% of people with disabilities have to crawl to get around, 38.6% walk with a cane or crutch and 9.7% are bedridden. Seventy-eight per cent of people with motor disabilities treated in that country had never had access to a wheelchair.

"Given this grim reality, we decided to use our expertise to help address some of these unmet needs and make life easier for the people with motor disabilities who are most in need of assistance. That's why we're working with the Isidre Esteve Foundation—so we can get our chair to the countries where the need is greatest, which are mostly in Africa", said Bernat Villa and Adrià Sallés. The Red Cross and the International Solidarity Sports Foundation have also shown an interest in their wheelchair and are working together so it can start to be used in Senegal. Other NGOs collaborating on the project are the ACAPS Foundation, Medicus Mundi Catalonia, Obra Social de Sant Joan de Deu, the Step by Step Foundation, GRACARE, Associació Rostros, Colores y Sueños, and the Vicente Ferrer Foundation.