Date: Tuesday, August 27, 2019
Category: General
BlueSky Designs announces the launch of its Pow!r Mount’n Mover, which delivers a new level of independence to people who use power wheelchairs. This innovation has led to a partnership with disability rights activist and author Shane Burcaw.
For wheelchair users with limited use of their upper extremities, wheelchair mounts are essential for using computers and phones, reading, talking with speech generating devices, and even independent suctioning.
Most mounts are static so the wheelchair user must wait for another person to move the mount for them. Static mounts can make it more difficult to transfer out of a wheelchair or move a speech device into place, thereby limiting the users’ independence.
Unlike static mounts or movable non-power mounts, the Pow!r Mount’n Mover (www.mountnmover.com/products/powr-mounts) is controlled by the wheelchair user with the push of a button.
Burcaw, author of the recently released book Strangers Assume My Girlfriend Is My Nurse, has gained independence with the Pow!r Mount’n Mover. He has spinal muscular atrophy, a form of muscular dystrophy that leads to limited muscle function.
“Using the Mount’n Mover has been life-changing. For the first time in 10+ years, when I was done working at my laptop for the night, I pushed my computer onto the table, pressed my new button to lower my joystick into position, lifted my hand onto the joystick, and drove into the living room,” Burcaw says. “I can’t adequately describe the elation I felt having that independence restored.”
Innovation is nothing new at Minneapolis-based BlueSky Designs. Since 1997, the BlueSky team has been developing products that make it easier for people with disabilities to do what they want to do.
“We’re thrilled to launch a product with so much potential for increasing independence,” Dianne Goodwin, CEO of BlueSky Designs, says. “The Pow!r Mount’n Mover exemplifies our company’s dedication to using technology to improve people’s lives. We’re excited to partner with Shane to expand awareness of the technology and impact even more people.”
Shane Burcaw and BlueSky Designs’ Mary Kay Walch will be co-presenting at the Closing the Gap Annual Conference in Minnesota in October 2019 and the Assistive Technology Industry Association Conference in Orlando in early 2020.
About BlueSky Designs
BlueSky Designs, a Minneapolis-based wheelchair technology innovator, applies rehab engineering expertise, ergonomics and universal design to develop products that address the needs of people with disabilities — at work, at play, and at home. They design movable mounting systems people can move independently, so they can do more, and do it themselves. For more information, please visit www.mountnmover.com and www.blueskydesigns.us.
About Shane Burcaw
Shane Burcaw is a twenty-something young adult with Spinal Muscular Atrophy and a wicked sense of humor. He lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he runs a blog and nonprofit organization dedicated to providing medical equipment to people with muscular dystrophy diseases. His bestselling memoir was shortlisted for the ALA Excellence in Nonfiction Award. His new book, Strangers Assume My Girlfriend Is My Nurse, was released this year. He and his fiancée, Hannah Aylward, are the duo behind Squirmy and Grubs, a YouTube channel that offers a behind the scenes look at their interabled relationship. For more information about his work, please visit: https://us.macmillan.com/author/shaneburcaw/
Contact:
Kimberly Sanberg
612-584-1333
kimberly@cairnstrategies.com