Fair Mobility

The IKAN Bowler is the world’s first operative, dynamic wheelchair bowling system. With the use of assistive technology, a former General Motors engineer designed the equipment to act upon the bowling ball just as the force of motion does when the ball is released from someone’s hand from the standing position.

The mod makes wheelchairs bowler friendly, while still depending on the bowler’s skill and accuracy to get a good shot. It has been approved by the United States Bowler’s Congress and was the first mechanical device to have been approved for professional participation in the history of the USBC.

The Bowler consists of 2 parts; an arm and a mount. It looks easy to install, using pressure clamps to attach the mount to the footrest of the wheelchair. The Arm, which is shaped like a slide, uses knobs that tighten with a screw to attach to the mount. It’s made up of stainless steel, plated aluminum, and PVC plastic and it’s durable. No tools are needed to assemble it, it’s portable, and weights about 11 lbs. The set comes with a pulley on wheels for transport.

The Bowler doesn’t look like it would fit on a hand-powered wheelchair, because of the height of the arm and the device’s dependence on short-stop effect to dismount the ball. It’s designed for motorized wheelchairs as you can see in this video of the IKAN Bowler in action.

IKAN Sports Foundation is developing recreational and competitive sports equipment to help bridge the gap between ambulatory athletes and those will less mobility. It comes from the Greek word, Ikanos, meaning “enable” and is developing mobility products for athletes in other sports as well.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 12th, 2005 at 12:00 pm and is filed under New Wheelchair / Powerchair Products, Wheelchair / Powerchair Innovations, Wheelchair Mods. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.