My shoulders are sore after five minutes. I drift off pavement, I can barely roll across grass and I can’t go over curbs without fearing I’ll tip over.
After a few more minutes, Matt McCambridge allows me to switch from my standard, hospital-grade wheelchair to one created by his team at Whirlwind Wheelchair International, a nonprofit organization based at San Francisco State University. They design rugged, high-performance wheelchairs for developing countries. Each chair (which costs less than $200) is made from parts, like bicycle tires, available in even the poorest areas, and is designed to be repairable with simple tools.
The hospital and Whirlwind chairs are as different as a $30 office chair and a $750 Herman Miller Aeron. The Whirlwind chair has a padded seat to support the user’s core and wide, sturdy wheels, and is tailored to the activities and situations of a given community. “The daily routine of a wheelchair rider in a developing country is like the X Games,” McCambridge says. Not only does the Whirlwind chair need to travel over muddy and rocky roads, but it also typically needs to be closer to the ground so its rider can reach tasks that others reach by squatting, needs to navigate tiny houses with narrow doorways, and needs to routinely survive being tossed from “storage” on the roof of a city bus. Bryan Cubelo, a welder in the Philippines, is a classic example of someone who needed a better chair. A polio survivor, Cubelo subsisted on donated wheelchairs for years; they constantly needed repairs and made it hard for him to get around the workshop. In his Whirlwind chair, he can accomplish more at work and even make impromptu beach trips to watch the sun set.
According to the World Health Organization, 65 million people worldwide need wheelchairs but few in developing countries have access to them. Without wheelchairs, people crawl around or remain isolated at home. Getting quality chairs to people is McCambridge’s mission. At Stanford he partnered with Stanford Hospital’s rehabilitation clinic for a mechanical engineering assignment. After graduating, he volunteered at Whirlwind and helped design prototypes. Since then, McCambridge has worked at organizations like Handicap International and Deka R&D Corporation, where he built $29,000 robotic wheelchairs. Last year, McCambridge was hired by Whirlwind. He relocates as often as every three weeks (he has lived in South Africa, India, Vietnam and the Philippines), and can fit all of his permanent possessions into two daypacks and a camera case. When on assignment, he provides technical resources for local factories that build the chairs, and he researches how the chairs perform in each community. Whirlwind has shared wheelchair technology with 45 countries, primarily in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
His job is “kick-ass,” McCambridge says. “I feel incredibly privileged and grateful.”
ALICE CHEN is Class of ’98.
