John Crawford of H.M.E. called me last Friday and told me that my application for a new powerchair has been approved by the Ontario Government's Assisted Devices Program. So that took almost two months. He came to my apartment today to order the chair. Because I am on the Ontario Disability Support Program, this chair is completely paid by the ADP. It sells for about $10K. One change they made is when I got my first chair a few years ago, I received the approval in the mail and gave it to my vendor. Now they send it directly to the vendor. John says some folks didn't seem to know what to do with the approval. The chair is similar to the picture. It's manufactured by Quickie in California. John says I should receive it in about a month. If it can be refurbished, I will donate my current chair. The main difference between my current chair and the new chair is my new chair will be the heavy duty edition. It will be more durable. It also has a rear suspension and is supposed to be a smoother ride. We discussed specific features. The biggest difference between the chair in the pic and the one I am getting is the footplates. This is because I am tall. The one piece footplate you see in the pic is mounted so high that I would be sitting higher in the chair and I may not be able to get underneath tables. I prefer my current footplates that are mounted lower but can be raised so I can clear curbs when I go out. Last year when I wrote about new products at the People In Motion show, I wrote about a front wheel drive chair called Alex. Because the suspension is front mounted, it can't accommodate the footplate I need. That's why John chose the Quickie. We had already decided that my seating will be the same. So the footplate was the only major decision to be made. The other stuff he asked about was pretty obvious. And I chose the colour Candy Apple Red. All I need is a racing stripe. Some folks think I go too fast already. Wait until they see me in the new chair.
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