New Mobility, New Grabber Made for Quads

 

March 19, 2025 - View in browser PRODUCTS Hook-It: An Inexpensive Grabber Made for Quads The Hook-It is a bent metal bar that wraps around your forearm to extend your reach and hook keys, cups, drawer pulls and a variety of other objects. “I find this little tool so convenient that I bought one for every room,” says Steve Wickwar, a C6 quad. Check out his video review. TECHNOLOGY An Autonomous Drone-Controlled Wheelchair? No Thanks. We’ve seen a lot of wheelchair prototypes unveiled over the years, but few have been as head-scratching as this Swiss-designed power chair. Its big breakthrough? A drone that hovers around the chair to scout a path and direct the wheelchair to it. NM editor Ian Ruder isn't buying it, and he offers a solution for designers of high-tech disability products: Spend some time talking with wheelchair users before designing “solutions” that nobody needs. OPINION Proposed Cuts to Medicaid and Social Services Target Our Community — Here's What We Can Do Massive spending cuts proposed in a recent federal budget resolution threaten governmental safety nets — including Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security and food stamps — that help millions of disabled Americans lead active lives, writes Tim Gilmer. He outlines the recent threats and offers a simple yet effective way to fight back: Tell your story in as many forums as you can. MEDIA What a TV Show Taught Me About Disability That Two Decades of Living with One Hadn't For Greg Moomjy, the television sitcom Speechless made a huge impact on his sense of self as a wheelchair user with CP. “I learned so much about myself and the challenges that people with disabilities face in the world,” he writes. “Above all, I learned that I wasn’t alone, and that particularly when things got bad, I wasn’t crazy.” PRO TIPS Expats: Building a Life Abroad There are plenty of reasons — from culture to health care access to cost of living — that might make you think about looking at other countries as potential places to live. In 2021, we talked with expat wheelchair users about the logistics, affordability and accessibility of building a life abroad. Here’s what they’ve learned.

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