StairLift 4 You

The demand for portable mobility products is rapidly increasing due to several factors:

1) People are living longer and the average age in most of the world is increasing. According to a recent study by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social affairs, “In most parts of the world, the 80 and over age group is growing faster than any other, and is expected to continue as the fastest growing segment of the population for at least the next 50 years.”

2) Obesity is on the rise. Two thirds of Americans (60 million people) are overweight or obese, some 3.8 million weigh over 300 lbs.

3) A study recently conducted by several professors at Ohio State University and Colorado State University concluded, “There is undeniably a link between obesity and injury risk in adults, efforts to promote optimal body weight may reduce not only the risk of chronic diseases, but also the risk of unintentional injuries.”

4) According to the U.S Census Bureau, 54 million people in the U.S. are classified as disabled. The United Nations estimates there are 650 million people in the world that are disabled.

With an ever increasing percentage of the world’s population facing disability as either an eventual outcome or a current limitation, the handicapped look toward modern innovation to formulate solutions to accessibility. These solutions often come in the form of rehabilitation (rehab), outpatient care, wheelchairs, scooters, and a want for a method to navigate the endless flights of stairs that haunt the society that we all live in. Those with residences which include stairs to access a second story or the basement are also faced with the high cost of installing expensive stair lift equipment, a residential elevator or even worse, purchasing a new single story home.

As real estate becomes more and more expensive, homes are being built up and down as opposed to single story making the possibility of transitioning to a single floor layout not always plausible. Additionally, installing an expensive stairlift inside a home, only provides a solution for that particular stairwell and does nothing for the patient/disabled person, once they leave their home.

Despite becoming disabled, a vast majority of the disabled do not want to sit idly by waiting for their lives to transpire with them on the sidelines. The desire to continue their daily activities, and fulfill many of their life’s ambitions continues on. Many want to travel the world, where ADA compliance and accessibility often go completely unaddressed. Considering all the stairs that exist in Europe, few hotels or tourist sites offer accessibility options for the disabled. Perhaps justifiably for officials, disabled accessibility for most European sites would be very difficult, if not impossible, to implement to much of a degree in light of the buildings and entire infrastructure being built thousands of years ago without much regard for those that were physically unable to climb the narrow stairways.