body electric - greater wellington segway

Although not specifically designed or marketed as an assistive mobility or medical device, huge numbers of people with all sorts of mobility problems are using the Segway to rediscover lost mobility, and to enhance their lives in very positive ways.

In New Zealand, the Segway is classed as a "mobility device", so the same rules as applied to mobility scooters and other wheeled machines that are allowed on the footpath applies.

Whether your impairment is temporary or permanent, you may find the Segway, with its small footprint, ultra manoeuvrability, and quiet, powerful and emission free electric propulsion the ideal mobility partner. Usually, you need to be able to stand unassisted to ride it, but there are aftermarket seating solutions that may be appropriate.

The i180 Segway with the Li-ion batteries is capable of any speed from zero (it will balance completely still for as long as you want) up to 20 kph, has a range of 25 to 35 km on a full charge, turns in its own footprint, and is virtually maintenance free. In a flat or inside environment where you are just moving about, standing etc. it will easily run for eight to ten hours on a full charge.
It will go anywhere a wheelchair can go, and plenty of places a wheelchair can't (like up any hill at 20 kph!), and run rings around a conventional three or four wheeled mobility scooter.

You may find that in certain circumstances ACC will pay for a Segway for you - talk to your occupational therapist for more information.

If you would like a no-obligation demonstration at your home or place of work, get in touch through the CONTACT page.
If your needs are more specific, we will work with you and your support people to see if we can find a Segway mobility solution for you.

For further research:

"...I began to show signs of Parkinsons disease. Simple things like walking, eating and typing have now become great obstacles. Walking is the most frustrating because of my inability to go anywhere unassisted. Most of the time I decided not to go...
I was not ready for a motorised wheelchair, which seemed my only option until I discovered the Segway. Despite some initial misgivings as to my ability or disabilities, I arranged for a demo and then purchased one. Its worked out great! After about two months of ownership, I have now rejoined my family on outings. I am no longer a burden to them and go about anywhere they can without being a spectacle of medical disability - I have my pride and self esteem back. I feel like part of the family again and not a medical oddity or excess baggage to contend with. My independence in mobility has returned and life is good again." - J.R. Miller Palm Beach, Florida

“When I became disabled, I said I’m going to go buy one, now I can justify it! It’s not a life necessity. I could have my lunch brought in to me and stay inside and never go out or do anything like that, but it’s a necessity to lead an active life.”
For Jarvis, the Segway has given him the ability to maintain a more active, mobile, and normal schedule: “I got it in October last year (2005) about 7 months ago. Before I started using the Segway I had gotten to the point where sometimes I would be out walking and have to stop and rest on the street.”
Jarvis uses his Segway every day to travel from his courtroom to his office and back. “It’s a circuitous route and it’s all inside this big complex we have here. I’ll also use it to go to lunch, or go get a haircut, or whatever, all in downtown Knoxville. My friends can walk and talk with me as we go along”, he explained.
Judge Jarvis points out to those unfamiliar with the Segway who don’t understand how it works, find it intimidating or think it’s difficult to operate, that to know the Segway is to love it. “I just ease along on it…You get better with it as you use it. You can go any speed you want to and it’s almost unconscious you get a feel for it like its part of you and its so fun.”

In 1998, an accident left the Frontenac resident with a shattered C4 vertebrae; "It was crushed, smashed into 17 pieces," says Kerr, 50. Now mostly paralysed from the neck down, the former real estate developer and home builder adopted a positive attitude: He'd do whatever necessary to regain any movement possible.
"It's been a constant process," he says. "Anything I could find that I thought could make myself better and healthier, that would improve what capacity I did have - well, that's what I've done." Kerr ordered a Segway HT when they first hit the market; and, when he went to Chicago for a training demonstration, the crew took one look at his wheelchair and declared "This isn't going to work." But it did. In a matter of minutes, Kerr used his gross motor skills and became "really, really comfortable. Just standing up - that was a new and interesting experience."
For Kerr, the Segway wasn't a new form of transportation, it was a new form of liberation. Others with disabilities soon discovered this as well.
"For us, this isn't an alternative transportation," Kerr says. "These (Segways) are truly an assisted mobility device."
It's the first thing that Kerr uses when he gets out of bed in the morning, he says. It's the last thing he touches when he hits the sheets at the end of a long day.