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BAU Vocational School Students Remove Barriers
With the "My Colorful Wheels" Project designed within the Technical Programs of its Vocational School, Bahçeşehir University has become a source of hope for people with disabilities who cannot purchase a wheelchair suited to their disability. The project aims to provide a better quality of life by designing wheelchairs that meet the physical conditions, living conditions and individual wishes of people with disabilities.
The project, carried out by Bahçeşehir University Lecturer İnci Zaim Gökbay and Vocational School Technical Programs students, aimed to offer solutions to the problems people with disabilities experience with standard wheelchairs.
Volunteers wishing to participate in the project were carefully selected by the Foundation for the Physically Disabled (FEV). The industrial experience necessary for the students to accurately design all the details and make them ready for production was provided by the Machine Tools Industrialists and Businessmen Association (TIAD). The project was meticulously carried out within the university-industry-civil society triangle, and 5 wheelchairs were designed in 2 years and delivered to the volunteers.
The last wheelchair was designed and produced for 16-year-old İsmail Can by our student Uğur COŞAR. İsmail Can, who has cerebral palsy, did not have a wheelchair functional enough to prevent him from falling out due to his spasms and to keep up with the speed of his childlike spirit. The needs of the family who applied to the project were listened to, İsmail Can's measurements were taken, and his needs were determined by spending time with him.
First, belts and a seat with special fabric and sponge-padded forms were designed to prevent the risk of falling out of the chair due to spasms without causing discomfort to his body. His arms were supported with special armrests. Special scissor mechanisms and detachable systems were designed for the footrest and backrest to allow the chair to be quickly brought into a reclining position during spasms. To keep the chair stable during tremors, custom-made 16-inch bicycle wheels were fitted at the back and silicone-filled wheels at the front, supported by a special braking system. The chair was designed with solutions ensuring that it opens and folds easily and is especially lightweight, so that it fits in the trunk of the vehicle the family uses to transport İsmail Can.
