Independent mobilibity promotes congnitive development of movitavtion, curiosity and social skills betwen children from a young age. Children with impared mobility however, struggle to gain independance due to reliance on carers. This has an adverse affect on their congitive development causing conditions such as 'learned helplessness'. Therefore independance must be encouraged to all children from a young age, regardless of disability.
In England, a few companies have begun creating electric wheelchairs for pre school children with diabilities. This gives them the oppertunity to experience independence and have fun with others without the need of a carer. Studies have shown this to have quantitative benefits to a child's congitive development. In developing countries however, powered mobility is not widespread, especially for pre-school children.
Designability has been providing children in England with powered mobility through charitable means and desire to expand their reach. They have sponsored us to create an inexpensive, modular electric wheelchair for children in developing countries, called World Wizzy, with an accompanying robust business plan. We chose to target India due to its varying terrain, market need and low GDP. Hence a product that is sucessful there has a higher possibility of expanding to other, more prosperous, locations. Esentially using India as a gateway to the rest of the world.
India has a negative perception of disability rooted in religion. Hiduism, believed by 79.8% of India, teaches that disability is an act of God due to wrong doings in a previous life. Although in urban areas, this thinking has been slowly phased out in recent times. The world wizzy can allow disability to be accepted from a younger age, thus accelerating acceptance and gradually spreading it to rural areas.
In order to promote social interaction between children regardless of disability, group customisation elements were incorporated as seen in the images above. Panels with whiteboard and magnetic boards allowed for children to customise the world wizzy together.
The design was developed into what is seen on the left. To reduce costs, simple, inexpensive machining processes were undertaken such as pole bending for the chassis and metal sheet bending for the seating. India has a surplus of steel hence steel was used for most components. It is essential to maintain the toy aethetic, thus vacuum formed ABS sheets were used as decorative tools. The sides had MDF panels, called 'Play Panels', which clipped onto the chassis poles via PCV clip attachments. These board can be customised by the children together.
The features of the WorldWizzy were softened and lines of continuity added between components to create a frliendlier aesthetic apprearance. The play panels directly slotted into the a slott cutout in the WorldWizzy chassis. The design was then drawn on CAD.
The WorldWizzy consisted of few components that can be easily assembled by hand. Meaning an untrained person can easily assemble the device safely and correctly.
This allowed for a flatpack distribution approach. Below is CAD I made for efficient packing of all components. I also create a Assembly Manual as well as a User manual that detailed how to safely assembly and correctly set up the World Wizzy for any child. Interviews were conduction with orthopaedic psychologists to understand the set up requirements.
As proof of concept and good visualisation for the final presentation, I 3D printed and assemblabled a scale model of the WorldWizzy and painted it to ensure the toy aesthetic is sufficiently communicated.
