Top 5 highlights from the Mobility Roadshow 2012

Recently on one very windy Saturday morning, Martyn, Liz and I went on a trip to Peterborough to visit the Mobility Roadshow 2102.

The Mobility Roadshow is an annual event held by Mobility Choice, showcasing hundreds of exhibitors that sell a wide range of disability related products and services. This year’s Roadshow was the biggest with nearly 180 exhibitors.

This was the first time that we had visited a large exhibition as editors of Disability Horizons. We spent the whole day checking out various exhibits and, during the early afternoon, we were kindly invited to help launch the Mobility Roadshow’s annual competition called Ready, Willing and Mobile.

So we thought we would bring you the top 5 highlights from the roadshow:

1. Steve Tarrant, disabled motorsport marshal, broke the current world record for ‘the greatest distance covered in 24 hours by a mobility scooter’ in a scooter provided by TGA Mobility.

2. On the New Product Launch Pad, the star of the show was the new stair and ramp-climbing powerchair introduced to the UK by Access4Wheelchairs. Arriving from China just a week before the Roadshow opened, it uses gyroscope technology to ensure that users remain upright and feel safe when ascending and descending.

3. The Design Zone, which was expanded this year to include a café area and a ‘hot desk’ where would-be designers and entrepreneurs displayed their work in order to gain valuable visitor feedback on new concepts for future accessible products.

4. Voted most desirable product by visitors was Safesip, an ingenious silicon cover that adapts to a variety of drinking glasses to prevent spillage while allowing drinking through a straw.

5. Hugely popular was Autoadapt’s Driver Test Station, which allows disabled people to test drive in a simulated car, enabling Autoadapt to create bespoke car adaptions from information gathered by the test drive.

Visiting the Mobility Roadshow was an enjoyable day out and an opportunity to meet both friends we hadn’t seen in a long time, and new people.

If you’re in the market for new innovative products, then the Mobility Roadshow is a great way to find out more, see the product or service in front of you and try it out for yourself.

By Srin Madipalli

Check out…

• Aid4disabled: opening doors for disabled people.
• ReWalk: a step into the future.
• Accessibility aps: what do you think?

Let us know about Paralympic sports you are involved in – email us at editor@disabilityhorizons.com, tweet us @DHorizons or send us a message on Facebook.