There is no device currently on the market that can sufficiently assist a handicapped individual in moving from a wheelchair to a toilet seat and back. Toilet seats are often significantly lower than wheelchair seating surfaces, which makes it particularly difficult for wheelchair users to move their own body weight upwards when transferring between the toilet and wheelchair. The group has designed and constructed a prototype of a device that will afford groundbreaking functionality to handicapped persons so they may comfortably and effortlessly move themselves between a wheelchair and a toilet seat. There is a great potential for commercialization of this product because there are no competitor devices that make transfer so easy or are so compact, the costs of producing the device are very reasonable, and the prototype’s design could easily be adapted for mass production.

The group would like to thank the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering for their generous sponsorship of this project.