
- Letter from the Chairperson
- Electrifying the RoughRider Wheelchair using Electric Bicycle Technology
- Ralf Hotchkiss Speaking on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour
- A Challenge from Mexico: How to Produce the Roughrider for Less?
- Manufacturing Bamboo Wheelchairs in Fort Portal, Uganda
- Ralf Receives JOE A. CALLAWAY Award For Civic Courage
- Giving Wheelchairs to Individuals in Need
- Watching “Mama wa Hunzi” is worth your time!
Dear Friends and Supporters,
In 2023 through 2024, Whirlwind continued its prototyping work with NIOION Technologies Company, Ltd. based in Jiangsu, China in the development of an electric Roughrider using specifically created hub motors, a lithium battery pack and a controller. In this newsletter, we have an update story about this collaboration with NIOION since we are deep into the prototyping process. During the next step of the testing process, we can begin reporting on how well these hub motors work as an integrated system. Whirlwind is hoping that this integrated electronic system with hub motors will prove to be a functional electric RoughRider wheelchair, which can be shared with the various factories now making manual RoughRider wheelchairs.
Whirlwind’s collaboration with Steve Williams, of Kyaninga Mobility in Fort Portal, Uganda, has continued with Steve’s prototyping of several models of his bamboo wheelchair. We have included an update story about his bamboo wheelchairs and about his efforts to have the Uganda government agree to purchase his bamboo wheelchairs. Additionally, we supported Fatuma Achan, who manufactured and maintains RoughRider wheelchairs in Kampala, Uganda, to visit Steve’s workshop and explore potential collaboration with his wheelchair making business.
Ralf Hotchkiss has been busy re-examining the original Whirlwind Wheelchair design, which is currently being manufactured by the Fundación Bertha O. De Osete Factory in Mexico, in comparison with the newer RoughRider wheelchair, which they also manufacture. Ralf has written an interesting article comparing the manufacturing steps of both Whirlwind Wheelchairs because the founder of the Bertha Factory correctly told him that the more complicated manufacturing process of the newer RoughRider forces them to sell it at 1.5x the price of the original Whirlwind Wheelchair. Ralf is committed to improving the current RoughRider by making it simpler to manufacture while maintaining the high-quality function and safety of the RoughRider wheelchair.
Whirlwind will continue to provide technical assistance and support to RoughRider businesses in 2024 with your donations, which keeps us improving the RoughRider wheelchair. Please consider making a generous large or small donation so that we can continue to provide the best wheelchair for the most difficult living conditions in the world.
With gratitude,
Bruce Curtis
Chairperson of the Board of Directors
Electrifying the RoughRider Wheelchair using Electric Bicycle Technology

In 2023 and 2024 Whirlwind has continued our collaboration with electric bicycle manufacturer NIOION Technologies, Jiangsu, China. Our goal is to develop an electric hub motor that can give the RoughRider either a limited amount of power assist on a manual wheelchair, or fully power an electric RoughRider wheelchair. The hub motor that we will need for a power assist or a fully electric RoughRider, while it will look like a bicycle hub motor, will need to be different in 4 important ways:
- It will need a much higher starting torque than most bicycle hub motors, to start the chair from a full stop, especially on steep slopes.
- It should have a lower top speed for safety over rough ground and for precision control in tight spaces. Luckily lowering the top speed by putting the hub motor into a lower gear will also raise the starting torque. But squeezing larger gears or an extra stage of gear reduction into a small hub motor appears to be a challenge. Electric motors that put out a higher starting torque tend to be larger, heavier, and more expensive, while we prefer a small, light-weight and cheap hub motor.
- The axle of a wheelchair needs to be 6 times stronger than that of a bicycle axle because the wheelchair’s axle is only supported at one end, while the bike’s axle is supported at both ends by a fork. The wheelchair’s axle thus needs to be thicker, and thicker axles will not fit into many existing bike hub motors.
- Fully powered wheelchairs need an automatic, electro-magnetic parking brake to hold them in place when the motors stop. Riders of power-assisted manual wheelchairs should find the existing hand parking brakes to be sufficient.
The first hub motors that we received from Avery had nylon gears and did not have electro-magnetic brakes. Ralf then asked for a new hub motor design with a stronger axle, with stronger steel gears, and with electro-magnetic brakes.
Avery has now created this improved hub motor. The total weight of the two 250-watt hub motors, the 24-volt lithium batteries, and the joystick controller is 10kg, or 22 lbs. This brings the total weight of a fully powered RoughRider, plus the electrical parts, to 29kg, or 64 lbs. A power assisted, manual RoughRider wheelchair should need about 50% less batteries and a much lighter controller. We hope that this combination will add only 5 kg (11 lbs) to a manual wheelchair, for a total of 24 kg or 53 lbs, for a power assisted RoughRider wheelchair.
Ralf Hotchkiss Speaking on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour
by Arthur Milholland, M.D., Ph.D.

I have heard Ralf Hotchkiss – twice now – speaking on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour. Ralf and Whirlwind Wheelchair International (WWI) are so worthy, unique and amazing that we just had to support him and WWI. As a Catholic I was raised thinking all men are brothers and I learned from a Jesuit priest that people in need have a claim on those of us who are more fortunate. Whirlwind fills the needs of people who have a claim on all of us.
In case you wonder, I don’t know anyone who depends on a wheelchair but the horror stories Ralf has told many times about poorly made wheelchairs breaking and tipping over, make us want to help in some small way.
Finally, I am a physician and want health, well-being and freedom from pain and suffering for all people. Whirlwind Wheelchair International converts my money into important action I cannot perform myself.
A Challenge from Mexico: How to Produce the Roughrider for Less?
by Ralf Hotchkiss
Whirlwind has received a challenge from Mexico’s Fundación Bertha O. de Osete IAP, one of our best and oldest Whirlwind Wheelchair producers: cut prices by one third, Osete insisted, or deny our best wheelchair model, the Roughrider, to thousands of our most active users!
This challenge is not hypothetical – it is because, in their decades of producing Whirlwind Wheelchairs, the Bertha factory has been unable to produce the more advanced RoughRider wheelchair nearly as cheaply as the original Whirlwind model. The manufacturing cost of the RoughRider at the Bertha factory is 1.5x more than the original Whirlwind Wheelchair!
So why is the cost of the RoughRider wheelchair so high? The tubular structures of both chairs are very similar. The upholstery, the drive wheels, the front wheels, the bearings, the folding frames, the footrests – all are similar structures made from the same materials. The difference, insists Bertha Founder Augustine Osete, is labor time.
His thoughts are clear: the new RoughRider has more parts, the tubing has to be cut and bent too many times, there are far more steps in making the new RoughRider wheelchair than the original Whirlwind Wheelchair. But how could he simplify the new RoughRider without losing its critical improvements? So, Augustin sent us two complete models: one of the original Whirlwind Wheelchair and one of the new RoughRider, and we went to work analyzing the construction of both of them.
Augustin of course was right. We counted 300 construction steps to build the original Whirlwind Wheelchair, while the new Roughrider took 400 construction steps! Can the Roughrider wheelchair be changed to be as easy to make as the original Whirlwind Wheelchair, without losing its critical features?
We have torn down both wheelchairs, and we are timing the fabrication of every part. Step by step, we will build a new Roughrider wheelchair, eliminating every part possible and simplifying the construction as much as we can. We will see how close we come to the low cost of the original Whirlwind Wheelchair without losing critical functions or safety designs.

Advantages of the Original Whirlwind Wheelchair over Typical Wheelchairs
- Much Stronger Overall
- Locally Manufactured by Small Businesses in Poor Countries
- More Stable over Rough Terrain
- Repairable with Local Materials and Welding
- Extra Wide Front and Back Wheels; More Mobile over Rough Terrain
Advantages of the RoughRider Wheelchair over the Original Whirlwind Wheelchair
- All the Advantages of the Original Whirlwind, Plus
- Far More Stable against Forward Tipping
- Easier Rolling with a Much Longer Wheelbase on a Shorter Wheelchair
- Safer, Larger Footplate with Toe Protection
Manufacturing Bamboo Wheelchairs in Fort Portal, Uganda
by Steve Williams, founder of Kyaninga Mobility in Fort Portal, Uganda

Steve is developing a new type of bamboo wheelchair, which will share critical parts of Whirlwind’s technology.
Steve shared this update: “Kyaninga Mobility is going into production next month of two bamboo wheelchair designs, both long wheelbase, one 3-wheeler and one 4-wheeler. I don’t think we will ever finalize the wheelchair designs because I think improvements will keep being added to the bamboo wheelchairs as user feedback comes in.
We will continue developing prototypes of a shorter wheelbase bamboo wheelchair with smaller caster wheels next year, along with a sports wheelchair for basketball. I think we will end up with 3 sizes of each bamboo wheelchair design, and we will aim for 5 designs of bamboo wheelchairs for the user to choose from. Also, we can now start producing crutches and standing frames by the end of this year.
We are also making seat cushions with waterproof covers, but we still don’t have a supply of 100% cotton fabric, so we have started using cotton T-shirts as Ralf Hotchkiss suggested. The cotton T-shirts work well but the Government of Uganda has just put a ban on importing all secondhand clothes, including cotton T-shirts.
For decent cotton fabric, we may have to look to purchasing it from Tanzania, but with the new Uganda secondhand clothes ban, it could kick start the Ugandan cotton industry. Before Idi Amin, Jinja cotton was famous for its quality world-wide. We would like to work with Fatuma Achan (Made Uganda), who is making wheelchair seat cushions in Kampala but the transport of her seat cushions to our workshop in Fort Portal could be an obstacle, depending on the total costs.
The labor costs of manufacturing bamboo wheelchairs are still hard to predict and also depends on how well the design process of the mechanical machines goes. At the moment we are using simple jigs and templates and trained craftsmen and therefore we are basing our costing estimate on low production at a high labor cost at this point. The material costs are around $180-$200 USD, (we are still looking at bulk orders). We are probably going to have a local price of around $280-$300 USD and a price for international NGOs of $450 USD, to help subsidize our local production costs.
We will only produce 50 bamboo wheelchairs this year, and we have orders from NGOs, but I hope by the end of next year that we can be producing 50 bamboo wheelchairs a month. The Government of Uganda may have a budget in the next couple of years to buy wheelchairs through a Ugandan NGO in order to support the distribution and provision of bamboo” wheelchairs in Uganda.”
For more information contact Steve Williams
www.kyaningamobility.org
Ralf Receives JOE A. CALLAWAY Award For Civic Courage
THE THIRTY-THIRD ANNUAL JOE A. CALLAWAY AWARD FOR CIVIC COURAGE
Is Hereby Presented to
Ralf David Hotchkiss
Founder of Whirlwind Wheelchair International and tireless advocate for people with disabilities around the world
In recognition of his life-changing efforts to provide affordable and functional mobility to those in need; his tireless travel to countries worldwide; his imaginative approaches to sustainable wheelchair designs; and his work to help the Justice Department end the monopoly of Everest & Jennings, a Goliath of the wheelchair industry.
After suffering a motorcycle accident in h’s junior year at Oberlin College in 1966 that left him a paraplegic, Ralf Hotchkiss was thrown into the world of expensive and poorly designed wheelchairs. He immediately started researching appropriate technology designs to make a better wheelchair for himself and others around the world.
Upon graduation from Oberlin in 1969, he moved to Washington, D.C. to work with Ralph Nader. Hotchkiss co-founded the Rehabilitation Engineering Technology Program (1987) and the Wheeled Mobility Center (1989) at San Francisco State University, where he was the Distinguished Research Scientist in the Department of Engineering and the Technical Director of Whirlwind Wheelchair International. He also founded the Center for Concerned Engineering (1971) with Ralph Nader. He is the author of Independence Through Mobility (1985), a book that explains how to make wheelchairs simply and economically. He was named a MacArthur Fellow in 1989.
Hotchkiss has traveled to more than 40 countries throughout Asia, Latin America, East Africa, and the Near East, linking together a network of workshops to build reliable wheelchairs that can handle rough ground. Out of his advocacy and tinkering grew the RoughRider Wheelchair. Hotchkiss says most people in the world don’t have wheelchairs yet and the wheelchairs they tend to get as donations don’t work well on rough ground or to cover long distances to school or work.
The RoughRider can go over rough ground with very little risk of breakage. It is designed both to be built with locally available materials and can be repaired by a local blacksmith or a bicycle shop. For his dedication to championing disability rights, expanding the horizons of applied engineering, and providing increased personal independence and integration into society for millions of people in need of safe, durable and affordable wheelchairs, Ralf Hotchkiss has earned the gratitude of the worldwide civic community.
Giving Wheelchairs to Individuals in Need
In August 2023, Whirlwind received a request for a donated Roughrider wheelchair from a severely disabled young woman in South Texas and we were able to send one to her. The following are email updates she has sent describing her life with her new Roughrider. She has asked to remain anonymous, so we are using her chosen pseudonym, l ori Hazama.)

September 12, 2023
Thank you so, so, much for helping me Mr. Bruce, you genuinely went above and beyond for me. When calling you to inquire about getting a donated Roughrider wheelchair, I never imagined that anyone (other than my dad, mom, or brother) would care enough about my well-being to want to affect my life in such a positive light like this. The RoughRider wheelchair you are sending to me is definitely going to vastly improve my quality of life and it’s going to allow me to regain my lost sense of autonomy and independence.
This heartfelt gesture from you, and your associates, is going to allow me to venture out of the home with my family again (I’ll be able to go back to going to church on Sundays with them again. I hadn’t gone in such a long time because just making my way down the stairs of my parents’ home on my forearm crutches, even with their support, takes too much out of me to the point where I struggle to remain ambulatory after that. The RoughRider will make accompanying them outside to church possible again).
September 24, 2023
We have received the Roughrider wheelchair and my dad has adjusted the wheelchair axles and the brakes are working perfectly now (but he did end up tying a string on them both to make it easier for me to work them while seated for the sake of my lower back pain.)
Currently we’re using the makeshift “elevator” to get the RoughRider wheelchair down from our second-floor house. At the moment my dad is using his brute strength but since he’s in his late 60s, I’m worried that he may end up injuring himself doing this, so I have quite a bit of anxiety over that.
Having to ambulate myself for long periods of time with my forearm crutches just isn’t possible for me cause my legs can only handle so much daily trauma before they give. I’m still transitioning and adjusting to being an ambulatory wheelchair user, but I feel like I’ve regained a part of myself that I never thought I’d ever get back. Plus, when compared to my old oversized and heavier hospital/airport model wheelchair, the RoughRider is much more ergonomic and I can self-propel myself over uneven ground/concrete with only occasional support from my Dad. It feels good to be alive again.

December 23, 2023
Dear Mr. Bruce, I wanted to let you know that I ended the Fall 2023 semester with all A+ and that I’ve recently been in communication with the campus staff (I had to go up the chain of command quite a bit though), but I made a genuine effort to advocate for myself and as a result I finally managed to get assigned a counselor from student accessibility services on campus before the staff members were let out for Winter break. I was told that the counselor within the first week of January was going to get back to me in regards to granting me reasonable accommodations on campus.
Also, my dad upgraded our poor man’s elevator. Now it’s got a wooden base and metal bars that were welded/wired together and now it works better and is a tad bit more stable. P.S. the RoughRider is holding up really well!
February 4, 2024
Mr. Bruce, I hope you’re doing well! On my end I’m definitely feeling much more comfortable than before I was gifted the RoughRider wheelchair. It even feels like an extension of my body and has made being an in-person student on campus less strenuous on my body.
Thankfully, with the RoughRider wheelchair, I’ll be able to take more of an initiative than I was able before. I’ll be able to take on a greater class load, which will help me to graduate sooner, to regain my independence and to become self-sufficient enough to not just survive in this life, but to thrive in it as well.
May 14, 2024
I ended the Spring 2024 semester with an A in Digital Media, an A++ in Art History 2, an A+ in Speech, and an A+ in Painting. I also successfully advocated for myself on campus and was finally granted the accommodations I needed to make student life more accessible. If it weren’t for the RoughRider wheelchair, I wouldn’t have been able to take the required studio class.
Mr. Bruce, I am wholeheartedly embracing you from afar and I also want to extend my thanks out to your associates as well, who lent their hands to us in aid. Thank you so, so, much for everything, you’ve literally saved my life!
Watching “Mama wa Hunzi” is worth your time!
by Ann McColl
“Mama wa Hunzi” (Women Blacksmiths) is a not-to-be-missed film. Thai woman filmmaker, Lawan Jirasuradej, shares the journey of three women with disabilities who participated in training to build wheelchairs in Kenya in 1997. It centers on two Ugandan women, Fatuma Achan and Sharifa Mirembe, and a Kenyan woman, Peninah Mutinda.
Filmmaker Jirasuradej lets us in on their lives — the difficulty of getting decent work once the employer sees that they are disabled — the vast challenges of using a typical wheelchair on dirt roads, crowded streets, and impossibly narrow corridors — and the frustration of being at the mercy of taxi-van drivers as to whether they will allow them to ride and whether they will charge extra for the wheelchair. Before the training, Sharifa Mirembe had a heavy wheelchair that was very hard to transport, including in these taxi-vans. In the film, she shares that at times she had to “leave my wheelchair and crawl.” The training is an act of empowerment for these women to learn to build foldable, rugged wheelchairs that will allow them to navigate these daunting conditions.
The film shows women helping women. Jennifer Kern, a lawyer and disability rights activist at the time and a wheelchair user, describes her experience as a volunteer at the training: “my being able to do things or to try, it sort of reinforces their efforts — and the same for me.” We see Achan working closely with Jan Sing, the technical director for the organization sponsoring the training, Whirlwind Wheelchair International. Side by side, goggles on, and sparks flying, they weld steel, bending pipes to construct wheelchairs. This connects to the Swahili title, “Mama wa Hunzi,” which means women blacksmiths. However, this is not merely a descriptor: it has been a title of stature in African culture with its many centuries-rich history in iron where male blacksmiths were not only respected but revered. We witness these women take their place in this lineage.
We see glimpses of the broader history that leads to this training. Ralf Hotchkiss is in view in a number of scenes, although often in the background (presumably to keep the women front and center). He is the genius and the engineer behind this. A wheelchair rider himself, he envisioned a simply made (and repaired) wheelchair appropriate to the tough environment in Africa and that could be folded for easier transport. He also wanted to build a network of locally owned and operated businesses across the globe that could take advantage of readily available parts and provide the opportunity for entrepreneurship among the disabled. He co-founded Whirlwind Wheelchair International to pursue this vision.
To fully appreciate how forward-thinking Ralf Hotchkiss’ vision is, consider what happens without this approach. First, there is a staggering need for wheelchairs in Uganda and Kenya (and many other places in Africa and around the world). Many governments have not stepped up to provide wheelchairs, leaving most people dependent on international charity donations. Women are even more likely to suffer in these charity donations as they take a far backseat to men in priority for receiving wheelchairs. The film reports that only one percent of women who need wheelchairs get them. This film is about an effort to put women in the driver’s seat for the wheelchairs that they need.
One of the most endearing people you will meet in the film is Fatuma Achan. Her smile is extraordinary. A single mother who had Polio as a young child, she has used a wheelchair since she was 14. After the training, she created and ran a wheelchair business in Kamapala, “MADE Uganda,” based on the Whirlwind model. Now she is a grandmother and continues to be interested in wheelchair design. I recently had the opportunity to correspond and talk with her. She still uses a Whirlwind Wheelchair. She recently said,
“What is a wheelchair to the user? Every user will give you a different answer. I would say a wheelchair is a life saver. It is just like water to a plant that was withering… Without a wheelchair, all you can do is stay home… A wheelchair gives the user a chance to look beyond himself or herself.”