Right to Repair Act for Mobility Devices<\/a> and would require wheelchair manufacturers to make repair parts and instructions available to owners.<\/p>\nAndrew Wiater is an intern at the Center for Independent Living (CIL). The nonprofit serves Central Florida residents with a range of disabilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout my wheelchair, I wouldn\u2019t have the freedom to be able to be a college student or intern here, or do any of the things I do on a daily basis,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Wiater\u00a0says two years ago he had to wait a few months for his motorized wheelchair to be repaired, slowing his weekly routines while he used a loaner chair.<\/p>\n
CIL President and CEO Charlotte Leavitt believes the Right to Repair Act for Mobility Devices is urgently needed. She compares the current situation for many wheelchair users to having your car in the repair shop for months.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, it can take weeks. It can take months that people do not have these devices,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s negatively impacting not only their ability to do those daily tasks but also their mental health.\u201d<\/p>\n
State Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, the bill\u2019s co-sponsor, sent Spectrum News 13 a statement that says in part, \u201cThe current lack of repair options leaves too many people stranded, unable to live their lives fully and independently. This Right to Repair Act will put the power back into the hands of wheelchair users and ensure their mobility and dignity are never compromised by unnecessary delays or exorbitant costs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Glen Mather is founder of Chair the Love, a Lake County nonprofit that has distributed 20,000 wheelchairs to people in Florida and around the world over the last 15 years.\u00a0Mather says some wheelchair parts can be expensive and hard to get, adding to repair costs and leaving users in limbo.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t move, and you rely on everybody else,\u201d he said<\/p>\n
In February, Mather\u2019s team distributed 280 wheelchairs to individuals in the Dominican Republic. He has witnessed thousands of lives being transformed around the world by the gift of mobility.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a movement. No one should be without a wheelchair that needs one,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Wiater\u00a0urges Florida lawmakers to pass the Right to Repair bill into law so wheelchair users can maintain their budgets and their mobility.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they don\u2019t have access to repairs, they\u2019re not able to live independently, which then leads them to feel isolated,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Eskamani tells Spectrum News the bill is still being debated in the House, but it is stalled in the state Senate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014\u00a0State lawmakers are debating ways to make it easier for wheelchair users to make repairs quickly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3948,6466,4318,3140,571,6075,1337,115,772,139,141,140,99,135,835],"class_list":{"0":"post-182048","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-app-health","9":"tag-app-latest-health-stories","10":"tag-app-latest-local-state-politics-stories","11":"tag-app-local-state-politics","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-health-and-medicine","14":"tag-keith-landry","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-on-air-ticker-article","17":"tag-orlando","18":"tag-orlando-headlines","19":"tag-orlando-news","20":"tag-politics","21":"tag-tampa","22":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}