If you’re able-bodied, you’ve probably never thought twice about stepping off the kerb to cross the road – and stepping back up onto the footpath on the other side. For wheelchair users, however, even a single step dictates their ability to move through a physical space.
One step at a time: new technologies for social inclusion
![Disability advocate Rob Silberstein demonstrating the Step Climber in action](/sites/default/files/styles/wysiwyg_generic_large_x1/public/2017-10/rio-step-climber-rob-silberstein.jpg?itok=GtMdBmOS)
Disability advocate Rob Silberstein demonstrating the Step Climber in action
Researchers
Michael Behrens
Research centre
Centre for Autonomous Systems
Partner
Northcott Innovation
An engineering innovation developed by UTS researchers and industry partner Northcott Innovation could be set to change all that. Called the Step Climber, it’s an attachment that can be added to any powered wheelchair, enabling users to navigate steps with ease.
The project reflects the shared vision of UTS and Northcott Innovation to deliver technologies that support people with disabilities to live full and equal lives.
“Small things like entering a building with a single step, or negotiating a footpath with no kerb cuts, can be frustratingly difficult for those who use wheelchairs. To remove this barrier is no small feat,” says Liz Forsyth, Executive Director of Northcott Innovation, a subsidiary of leading disability services provider Northcott.
“The Step Climber will level the playing field and build an inclusive society.”
The Step Climber replaces a wheelchair’s existing wheels with casters that are split in two, much like a pram wheel. These casters can climb over each other in order to ascend or descend a step.
“We’ve also replaced what’s called the anti-tipper wheel with a little wheel that we can move up and down, and that hooks onto the step to lift and lower the drive wheel,” says Dr Michael Behrens, a senior mechatronic engineer at UTS who led the Step Climber project.
The fact that the Step Climber is an attachment to an existing chair is no mistake – the aim, Behrens says, was to develop an affordable alternative to purchasing a whole new chair, the cost of which can easily exceed A$10,000.
Beyond price point considerations, what makes the Step Climber unique is that it can traverse a full, 15cm roadside kerb.
“Other step-climbing attachments can only take very small steps, and sometimes they can go up but they can’t go down again, which kind of limits their usefulness,” Behrens says.
The Step Climber was the first partnership between UTS and Northcott Innovation.
“We’ve been collaborating with UTS to develop the Step Climber since its inception,” Forsyth says.
“We have found UTS’s approach to intellectual property to be flexible and focused on rapid transition to commercialisation, and they have encouraged their staff and students to work with us on a significant challenge faced by our society, that of inclusion.”
Image credits
Photo courtesy of Northcott Innovation