MA Senate passes bill to address wheelchair repairs that can drag on for months

"Wheelchair users took a victory lap at the State House on Thursday after the state Senate passed legislation to address a national crisis, chronic delays of months or longer for even the most basic repairs to chairs.

The bill, passed with a vote of 39-0, would extend warranties on new chairs from one year to two, a period during which chair owners could avoid cumbersome insurance authorization for fixes, advocates said. Chairs with expired warranties would not need insurance approval for repairs less than $1,000.

“We’ve been fighting so hard just to get here,” said Pamela Daly, of Charlestown, after the Senate vote. “They’re simple mechanical problems or they’re simple parts that need to be ordered. This is not rocket science.”

Daly noted she was late for Thursday’s vote because her wheelchair’s brakes, installed about a month ago, failed earlier that morning, and she fell while trying to get into her chair. Though uninjured, she had to call paramedics to help her get into her chair."

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MA Senate passes bill to address wheelchair repairs that can drag on for months

Boston Globe: "At a Worcester workshop, designers improvise with fabric, plastic, and metal to ease life for people with disabilities"

"Walkers and wheelchairs with missing parts or improvised upgrades crowd the floor of the workshop on the outskirts of Worcester.

At the facility, one of four Assistive Technology Centers run by the state, designers and technicians customize and adapt equipment, from shower chairs to iPads, to make them safer, more comfortable, or easier to use for people with developmental disabilities. The solutions can be as complicated as rebuilding a motorized chair, or as basic as laminating a cardboard box, as one of the adaptive equipment designers, Gabrielle Reis, discovered during weeks of trial and error as she attempted to build a tray for a wheelchair.

“Some of the hardest situations have some of the easiest solutions,” said Reis, 30, of Boston.

Massachusetts is among the few states with facilities dedicated to devising creative solutions to accommodate the unique needs of people with developmental disabilities, according to officials with the state’s Department of Developmental Services, or DDS. About $2 million is budgeted annually for the program, though it has other funding sources, including insurance payments and donations."

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Worcester is home to one of four “innovation centers” run by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, where technicians can build and invent adaptive equipment to help people with disabilities. Technician Joey Watt works on a donated wheelchair, which will be rehabbed with parts from another wheelchair that allow the seat to be angled backward and forward. JOHN TLUMACKI/GLOBE STAF