There’s so much simple joy in taking an infant for a walk. However, Jeremy King thought he would be deprived of this when his wife became pregnant. The 37-year-old struggled with speech and mobility issues after brain surgery in 2017. He managed to survive a tumor — “about the size of a baseball,” he said — but his challenges were far from over. He explained that “even going out on a walk is so incredibly difficult for me,” and he often needs a wheelchair.
However, students at the private school his wife teaches at took this situation as a challenge. Then they succeeded in creating a wheelchair with a stroller attached for him and his baby to enjoy.
The “Making for Social Good” Class
After Jeremy and Chelsie discovered they were expecting their first child in June 2020, they were both excited and concerned. They wondered how they were going to parent safely with their new, post-surgery dynamic. “Getting outside and taking your baby for a walk in a stroller is something that a lot of people take for granted,” Chelsie said.
So they searched online for devices that could aid Jeremy and their child to little success. Although wheelchair adaptive strollers existed, they were difficult to obtain. Unfortunately, there are not many resources for parents with mobility disabilities. In the end. Chelsie King, who is a teacher at a private school in Potomac, Maryland, turned to Matt Zigler, a colleague who ran the school’s creative lab. “I approached him as a personal favor. I know he’s a whiz at building things and is an incredibly collaborative person,” she said. [1]
However, she expected him to suggest an idea or two. Instead, he asked for permission to bring the issue to the students in his elective course, “Making for Social Good”. The class is all about creating unique projects that could help people. Previously, the students had made solar-powered cellphone chargers for communities in Africa and kits for homeless people that included durable cards engraved with resources. However, helping someone directly — someone they know personally — felt “especially meaningful.” According to Zigler, “It seemed like that would be a perfect project that would engage the kids and result in a successful end product.”
Creating the WheeStroll
He told his students about the idea, and “they were all very excited about it.” The trimester course ran from November to March — and Chelsie’s due day was May 4. “It lined up very well, and gave the students the time crunch they needed to stay focused.”
“The idea of the course is to start out by trying to understand the problem, so we did interviews with the family,” Zigler said. “We talked to somebody at the local fire department who actually does infant car seat installation training to try to better understand how those things work.”
Then the students began sketching out ideas for the stroller attachment to the wheelchair. Then they began making 3D models of these suggestions. “We were all very goal-oriented,” said one of the students, Jacob Zlotnitsky, 18. “We were all focused on successfully making the best product we could in the amount of time we had.”
In the end, the class divided to create two projects. One group worked on a stroller attachment that could attach to Jeremy’s wheelchair called the WheeStroll Stroller Attachment. The other group made a WheeStroll Stroller Connector that attaches an entire stroller to his wheelchair. “Children grow and they grow out of a car seat so we wanted Mr. King to be able to walk with his son no matter what age he was,” Zlotnitsky said. [2]
The class printed the pieces from it using a 3D printer, including custom brackets and aluminum maker pipe to connect the stroller and wheelchair. They also got a wheelchair from the school nurse to use as a model for weight testing. “I think they dumped a bunch of cinder blocks in it and actually weight-tested it at the school a couple of times, which I think the kids were really into,” Chelsie said.
Make Your Own Wheelchair and Stroller
Plus, the students often collaborated with Jeremy, getting his opinions and asking him questions. “It was certainly emotional seeing the process and everything that went into this,” he said. “I really feel the students took all my concerns to heart when creating the prototypes.”
Not only that, the WheeStroll won two international design awards. But most importantly, Jeremy is overjoyed to have this new wheelchair. It’s become life-changing for him. He’s now able to take a simple stroll with his family. “I never thought I’d be able to do something like this safely,” he said. “I feel wonderful, I feel ecstatic.” [3]
If you or anyone you know would be interested in the wheelchair-stroller design, Zigler posted instructions on how to build the WheeStroll. “This device requires two 3D printed parts, but can also be made with inexpensive tools and materials,” he wrote. You could find more information on WheeStroll’s Instructables post.
Sources
- “A teacher was pregnant. Students built a device so her spouse, who uses a wheelchair, can stroll with the baby.” Washington Post. Sydney Page. June 22, 2021
- “Wheelchair-stroller built by students for new parent with impaired mobility.” ABC News. Aryana Azari. July 15, 2021
- “Students adapt wheelchair to allow teacher’s husband to take baby for a walk after brain surgery.” CBS News. Chip Reid. July 26, 2021
