Manual wheelchairs serve a purpose and are the perfect mobility aid for many disabled people, especially those with lower spinal cord injuries. However, wheelchairs come with stigma, and powered wheelchairs come with even more stigma. This means that people often choose a manual wheelchair or a small, foldable powered wheelchair because they feel that is the ‘least disabled option’. This perception leads to manual and lightweight powered wheelchairs being treated as the default. But for many people, this only means setbacks and a smaller world. Everything becomes a compromise based on the limitations of the equipment and how they can be used.

This presentation explores what happens when you give wheelchair users the right wheelchair, and what that can unlock for them. Alex, founder of Freedom One Life and a lifelong powerchair user, knows all too well what it feels like to be limited by equipment that is supposed to give you independence. After years of unreliable equipment cutting his world short, he set out to change the story.

 

In this session, Alex shares his expertise as a powered wheelchair designer and manufacturer, alongside the incredible journey of Race Across Europe he organised, where four powerchair users travelled from London to Turin using only a Series 5 powerchair and public transport. It’s a story of resilience, barriers, and really shows what having the right equipment can do.