Welcome to the Electric Wheelchair Charging Network or as we call the project internally, “WheelCharge“.

This is a prototype location tool for wheelchair charging stations.

Dee Anne Everson from United Way of Jackson County wrote me an email one day (March 7, 2023). 

She told me that “We have a transportation committee at United Way and one of our members is in a motorized chair.  He asked at the last meeting why don’t we have electric wheelchair charging stations.” The email also shared some ideas for an app just like car charging stations to address some committee concerns about power stealing.

I told her I would look into it.

I searched online for wheelchair power stations.

There are some.

The wheels in my head started spinning.

I couldn’t find a list of charging stations. So I wanted to solve that first.

I asked my team to come up with a working prototype and that is what you are looking at today. We launched the working prototype on March 20, 2023 and will constantly be making modifications to it. 

Now the next part is getting it populated.

Getting the word out about how easy it is to provide a charging station and how easy it is to put it on the map. After this is done, we will address the concern how to we prevent power stealing. We can develop an app that remotely controls the power at a charging station. As long as there is wifi.

Will is cost money to charge? Maybe. Electricity is not free… Unless it’s solar. 😉 but the infrastructure to provide free electricity costs money.

Over time I’ll write more posts about this journey.

From Question to Inspiration, Development and Deployment.

We will build some charging stations and document examples of best cases that are setup.

Who Pays for this site? I do.

Who pays for your electricity? Maybe grants will pay for it? I’m not sure. 

I don’t want to create the excuse why something isn’t done.

I want to solve a problem and find a way to get it paid for.

Who maintains the charging station? Great question. 

When you go to the airport there are power outlets that are open and many of us use them to charge our phones. We don’t pay for it.

I expect Government agencies to be the first to provide this service, followed by non-profits and churches, but it’s rather easy for any business to also provide this as part of their EDI charter.

That original Google search found some government agencies providing this service, but I couldn’t find a global source. I’ll do blog posts sharing those stories as well.

 Please use the contact form to let me know your thoughts.