Ramping the Siberian Steppe: Wheelchair Marketing in Novosibirsk, Russia
By Krizack, Marc L. Wheeled Mobility Center at San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA; Proceedings of the RESNA '95 Annual Conference, Vol. 15(Pages: 574-576) Publication Date: 1995
This article describes the efforts of the Wheeled Mobility Center (WMC) to set up wheelchair production factories in Novosibirsk, Siberia, Russia. At the start of the project the Soviet government had a monopoly on wheelchair production and sales. WMC managed to set up a commercial manufacturing company inside a helicopter repair facility and this company, named SibMedDesign (SMD) has designed a new wheelchair and has put it into commercial production. The government monopoly has been broken and sales are underway. Photos show the inside of a Siberian wheelchair factory and the new SibMedDesign wheelchair.
Published by: Rehabilitation Engineering & Assistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA) (Website:http://www.resna.org)
Link to text: http://www.resna.org

