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TAI, The Accessibility Institute

Location
Kenya

Programme
East Africa Accelerator 2021
in partnership with  Acumen  

Site url
www.safariseat.org

TAI offers affordable assistive technology devices to low-income and mobility-impaired people in Kenya

Across Africa, there are over 10 million people living in need of a wheelchair and feel imprisoned by their disability. As a result, these individuals face social exclusion and find themselves struggling daily to fulfill life’s most basic needs.

TAI's (The Accessibility Institute) mission is to change the lives of low-income mobility-impaired people in Kenya and Africa. To realise this they have developed a low cost, high-quality assistive technology devices such as their all-terrain wheelchair SafariSeat, which allows mobility-impaired people to move around freely.

In collaboration with Kenyan institutions and community organizations, The Accessibility Institute identifies mobility-impaired people who would benefit from using SafariSeat, then delivers SafariSeat to them and trains them in the use and maintenance of the wheelchair. The lowest income users receive SafariSeat through partnerships with donors, and they partner with Micro Finance Institutions to allow low-income users to buy SafariSeat at credit.

SafariSeat users regain their mobility, but more than that they also regain their independence. SafariSeat has allowed disabled people to study, start working, restart working after long years of idleness due to disability, feeling empowered in their life. In 2020 they distributed 130 SafariSeats and that number is growing