According to the World Health Organization (WHO) 15% the world’s population currently lives with some or the other form of disability. Of these, 2-4% people require assistive technological devices like wheelchairs, hearing aids, or spectacles to carry on their daily activities. Unfortunately, this figure is set to double to two billion by the year 2050.

Given this background, India too is in dire need for affordable assistive technologies.  Mumbai based Indent Designs is all set make a positive impact for people with disabilities (PwD) with their innovative mobility product, Ibex.

Powered wheelchairs are a fundamental requirement for some in order to stay mobile and independent during the course of the day. However, the basic design of Indian wheelchairs itself poses as a grave hindrance to the users when travelling on roads. The uneven surfaces of the roads don’t welcome the product design and in turn, demand an increased amount of effort, energy, and time from the user to cover a small distance.

^{The Joy of Being an Independent Woman!}

Monika, is a paraplegic from Ankleshwar. Her physical situation since her accident made her heavily reliant on her siblings for carrying out daily activities. Her dependence on others for the smallest things affected her self-confidence. She needed to bounce back to life and live each day independently. That is when she found the Ibex.

Since then Monika has taken admission in college and also works to sustain herself on the side as a talented Mehendi designer. She can now confidently go out alone and regularly visits the local temple. She is joyous when she says, ”At first my brothers had to encourage me to go out. Now thanks to Ibex, they have requested me not to go out so much!”

Ibex is a powerful personal mobility device created as a result of an in-depth and thorough research and development.  The company, Indent Designs has taken the guidance of renowned physiotherapists to design the ergonomics of the wheelchair. They have also taken feedback from the end user to make sure that requirements of the wheelchair and their daily needs are met without compromise.It is specifically designed in-house to smoothly succeed in navigating through the Indian road conditions. Made from bicycle parts, the Ibex has several benefits like being

Ibex is also designed keeping the average door width in mind, which is smaller than those in developed countries. Every bit of technological interventions that go into Ibex have been designed to make as close to a complete package as possible.

^{The ease of accomplishing the difficult with Ibex}

The intention is to enable students to never skip their education owing to mobility challenges. With Ibex if all persons with disabilities are regular with their classes, we can surely hope for a bright and successful career that awaits them. Moreover, they can motivate and be role models for those who are low in confidence and feel the need to be independent.

Ibex aims to mitigate the gap between every student and her or his education. Likewise, the company hopes that all men and women using Ibex can live complete, full, and happy lives, living their dreams and accomplishing their goals in every sphere of life.

^{The Benefits of Ibex Supersede all Indian Wheelchairs}

Jagruti, is a polio patient, who runs her own PCO. She used to use a three wheel manual tricycle to get to her place of work. However, owing to the time consuming discomfiture, most days she was dependent on her sister to commute to and from the PCO.

While Ibex was still in the testing phase, Jagruti was introduced to Indent Designsand as the champion that she is, she became a willing participant during the entire trial phase. She helped by providing her experience and inputs all through the development phase, resulting in a superior final product.

Jagruti took initiative in providing both positive as well as negative feedback. What gave Indent Designs deepest satisfaction was when she started using Ibex to travel to the temple regularly all by herself. In her experience, using the previous wheelchair left her with little or no energy at the end of the day. This made her often miss her visits to the temple. But now she is not only regular herself, but also loves to take her nephew to Mall on Ibex.

What started as a simple effort to make a powered wheelchair for a family friend’s father, took an amazing turn to create a beautiful personal mobility device for countless Indians in need.

While most powered wheelchairs are designed for smooth surfaces, Ibex is a powered wheelchair designed for Indian road conditions, while still suitable for use indoors. This gives the Ibex users the unique ability to use one mode of transport to get to their place of work, educational institution, or run daily errands, and still be able to use it indoors. This proves as an added advantage to the user who is comfortable whether indoors or out on the road.

Indent Designs recognizes the impact of Covid-19 on their product and feel that this year raising CSR funds for a project other than Covid-19 would be difficult. Moving forward, they intend to shift their focus towards making Premium Wheelchairs with a special attention to B2C since they forecast fewer products to be sold. While business is one aspect of a company to be in the market, the key lies in the heart of all things. The CEO of Indent Designs, MrDhruv Chaudhry believes that more and more organizations must come forward and manufacture mobility devices. He says a lot must be done considering the grave lack of infrastructure in India. He hopes to leverage his organizations knowledge bank and ability to make personal mobility devices other than wheelchairs as well.

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Impact-Story is a series on development and CSR interventions leading to some impacts on the ground. If you have a project, innovation or intervention that has changed the lives of a few people or a community, please share a brief note at shilpi@csrbox.org. Our Team will get back to you after validating the information for a detailed coverage.