This post is about a wheelchair project which allows the user to stand up easily. “The Leeding E.D.G.E” also features easy drive handles with different gearing options to promote accessibility and combat shoulder injury generally caused by traditional wheeling techniques. Designer Time Leeding proposes this wheelchair alleviates pressure sores and makes moves toward closing social boundaries which “inhibit the lives of the disabled day to day.”

It is a world that I do not pretend for a moment to understand, that being the world that a person that must be in a wheelchair lives in. I believe that each person lives a different life, and that each person deals differently with a situation that they might not find ideal, for example becoming confined to a wheelchair partway through life. Does allowing a person with no use of legs the ability to stand up temporarily work toward a better life for that person?

That question asked, this wheelchair seems to me to be quite the fabulous looking bit of engineering. “The Leeding E.D.G.E” features “dynamic drive” handles that work with a rowing sort of motion. More energy efficient and less strenuous than traditional techniques. The chair features geared hubs featuring 2:1 drive, 1:1 drive, neutral and revers gears, and of course, that excellent standing mode.

Designer: Tim Leeding