Thursday, October 4, 2007

Does the iBOT make my neighbor's homes accessible?

No. : ( At least not the majority of them. While the
sun peeked out from behind the clouds for a few minutes,
I went around my neighborhood a bit and this is what
I found:

I looked at 43 houses. With assistance I'd be able to get
into the majority of them. But I don't have an assistant
with me ever really. And it's not so simple that I can just
tell a person how to assist. The assistant needs to be
trained by a representative from IT.

22 of the homes I looked at had no railing at all.
To do the stair climbing on my own, there has to be
a railing.

13 of the homes did have a railing, but the railing
did not extend beyond the top step which is needed
for me to do stair climbing.

2 homes did have railings, and the railing did extend
beyond the top step, but the landings were too small.

There were only 6 houses that I would be able to
get into on my own. That is 6 more than I can get into
before I got my iBOT, but still, that's a pretty low
and disappointing number. Hopefully engineers are
working to make it so the iBOT user wouldn't need a
railing. The way it is now, it's absolutely necessary.
There's no getting around it. I'm sure someday someone
will come up with something genuis that does not require
a railing.

I have to admit that the stair climbing function on the
iBOT has turned out to be a bit of a disappointment.
However, the 4-Wheel Drive and the Balance Function have
exceeded my expectations!

3 comments:

Christina said...

Hello! I'm a writer in St. Paul, Minn., and your friend Amy G. told me about your recent iBOT acquisition. Congratulations! I'd love to correspond with you for a possible feature. Please e-mail me at christinacap@gmail.com.
Thanks!
Christina

Shannon said...

Will do!

Hannah said...

Hi, I love reading your blog. My husband is in a wheelchair since getting a virus in college, 8 yrs ago. We want to have a child in a few yrs and are looking to get a house he will be able to get around well in. Ppl don't believe us when we say how inaccessible houses/apts are. thanks for sharing this. Check out our blog, too. :) Thanks