Scooters aren’t sexy, but they are conduits for accessibility in the truest sense.
Los Angeles-based mobility firm Reyhee on Monday announced via press release the introduction of “long-lasting mobility solutions” for senior citizens and people with disabilities. The two products, the Cruiser and the Roamer, are FDA-cleared, medical-grade electric vehicles designed to make mobility accessible for those who find walking—even a short distance—difficult, if not impossible. (Scooters are also useful to people in rehabilitative situations, such as post-surgery.) The Cruiser is a classic scooter featuring a lightweight frame, removable battery pack, and flippable armrests. The Roamer is a wheelchair that shares many of the same amenities as the Cruiser, such as the lightweight frame and removable battery.
News of Reyhee’s forthcoming products is an exclusive for this column.
The addressable market is not small; Reyhee anticipates the market is worth upwards of $2.31 billion. That’s a lot of potential customers—and potential profits.
“We are here to remind anyone with limited abilities that they can enjoy a level of independence and be more present in their daily lives,” Thuan Tran, vice president at Reyhee, said in a statement for the press release. “Our adaptive mobility solutions are made with thoughtful design and features that consumers can trust. As a company, we seek to make the lives of seniors, those recovering from injuries, and/or those who simply need a little extra help getting around that much easier.”
In addition to the Cruiser and the Roamer, Reyhee also teased “additional new products this spring” that include something called Muuvr. The company describes it as a three-in-one mobility device that runs on electricity.
The family-owned-and-operated Reyhee describes its raison d'être as building products with “the highest-quality components and materials, offering better development, design, production, research, and quality control,” according to the company in their press release. The use of a motorized scooter or wheelchair not only serves pragmatically with getting around easier, it also can be a big boon emotionally in terms of instilling greater feelings of autonomy and independence.
Likewise, it’s extremely important to keep in mind accessibility in technology is not (and will never) be solely about the ones and zeroes that make up computer software. Hardware like Reyhee’s products is technology too, albeit perhaps not quite as headline-making to most users and pundits. Scooters aren’t nearly as exciting or technically interesting as an iPhone or a MacBook, let alone an electric car from Tesla or Rivian, but are nonetheless important. For someone with limited mobility, their Reyhee scooter or wheelchair may very well prove just as indispensable for literal accessibility as their iPhone’s discrete accessibility software. Indeed, today’s announcement from Reyhee serve as a good reminder that electric scooters and wheelchairs are viable forms of assistive technology.
This concept was recently explored in this space. I published an interview last month with Brandon Bach, president of Consumer Convenience Technologies, or CCT, about the company’s innovative EEasy Lid for jars. Like scooters and wheelchairs, accessible packaging may be unsexy but essential; notably, they’re key accommodations that help society foster empathy and inclusivity.
The Cruiser and the Roamer are priced at $799 and $1399, respectively. Both can be purchased through Reyhee’s website, as well as on Amazon in two weeks.
Read the original Forbes article by Steven Aquino here.