Brilliant!

The following is reprinted from New Mobility Magazine. This is such a simple yet brilliant idea...

"Pretty sure she's Swedish, or maybe she's Norwegian, but that's not important. What is important is what Cindy Sjoblom created for her university project: A stroller made for parents who use wheelchairs.


Called the "Cursum," the stroller Cindy designed is specifically made for parents in wheelchairs, and it has dozens of design features that are oh-so helpful. Listen up, if you have a child under 3 and can't walk, you should be *very* excited right now.


It's hard to believe, but no one has created a stroller like this yet. I've been waiting for it (even though I have no desire to be a parent myself). I've always thought it was something that was terribly needed for parents with mobility disabilities.


I should preface this entire complimentary blog entry however by saying that it is not yet available for purchase. I expect the Cursom will be eventually, or someone out there will copy the design and sell it themselves. It WILL be available at some point — of that I am sure. Cindy created a video profiling her stroller and the creation process. You can check it out on Vimeo here.


To give you a basic rundown, the stroller is essentially different because of the noticeable height difference in this design. Instead of a stroller being too low, this one is at the perfect height for someone sitting in a wheelchair. And then the stroller also has smaller wheels, and an overall smaller wheelbase, that makes it perfect to snuggle right in the front of your wheelchair.


But it does more than snuggle. It actually locks to the front of your wheelchair so you can make sure you have a definite "grip," which you know, is kind of important when you have a baby. There is also a cute storage space underneath the seat (at about knee height; perfect).


It also has a perfectly placed handle-bar for pushing, buttons to adjust the handle, buttons to adjust the height of the seat, buttons to adjust the stroller to the wheelchair and a button to fold it too. She's thought of everything pretty much.


There are some places however that I don't think I would take it, since it IS attached your wheelchair, like through a glass door turnstile, or in a crowd of people. But in the video, they show some crazy maneuvering with the stroller.


They say parenting in Europe is a bit more "guerilla-style" (less "safety;" more "just do it already"). From this video, it seems that parents in wheelchairs still adopt this same mindset. That makes my soul smile.


Those northern Euros (Ikea)...why and how do you design so well? Is it in your blood? Is it something with the cold weather? (like a brain freeze, but in a good way?)"


Here is a video that shows Cindy's design!