Airport wheelchair system for travelers with disabilities got Platinum Award

The European Product Design Award is given to talented designers who seek to improve everyday life with practical solutions. In 2019, experts awarded Ciara Crawford, a student at the University of Limerick from Ireland, the first place for developing a new wheelchair for air travelers.

Over the past two years, a million air passengers with disabilities made 23 million flights, paying $ 9 billion for their travel. According to Ciara Crawford, airlines do not pay enough attention to the problems of low-mobility travelers. To make the stay at the airport and flight more convenient for the elderly, passengers with reduced mobility, Ciara came up with a new model of a wheelchair.

“At the moment there is a lack of focus on the accessibility of aircraft or aircraft seats for people with reduced mobility. Most designs are focused on making the seats smaller and lighter, with less legroom. These designs reduced the amount of independence and freedom for passengers with reduced mobility.I designed a seat that would take the passenger from the check-in desk at the airport, to their destination, allowing for easy access to the aircraft and the bathroom on board & hopefully allowing them to remain as independent as possible by reducing the number of seat transfer they must do.” - the designer’s explanatory note to the project says.

Row-1 - the name of its product - allows passengers to remain in the same wheelchair from the moment they arrive at the departure airport, when boarding an airplane, during a flight, when disembarking and at the destination airport, thereby reducing the number of wheelchairs to pram throughout the route. On the ground, the Row-1 behaves like an ordinary wheelchair, and on board it is parked onto and strapped into the aircraft seat to allow for quick and easy boarding and disembarking.

The wheelchair is equipped with its own safety belt, which is useful both at the airport when driving along ramps and in the air. Ciara supplemented her design with joystick-panel for manual operation, as well as space under the seat for handbags.

The new wheelchair for air passengers received the Platinum Prize in Transportation/Aircraft/Aerospace.