>Because of manufacturers’ restrictive repair rules, some wheelchair users have had to wait weeks for fixes large and small.

Some of our product users have had to wait more than 6 months for the big industry players to get around to things like changing their batteries (which takes all of 10 min to do). The service side of the power wheelchair industry is abysmal. This law forces them to do better or lose their customer base. They're already scrambling to unfuck their service model, and that's really good for the users. Huge kudos to Rep. Titone for helping make this happen.

It's true, wheelchairs are glacially slow at technological progress. That's how the industry wants it because changing technology means updating billing codes.

I work for a company that makes the only smart sensor system on the market for power wheelchairs (think collision avoidance, curb detection, cloud data connectivity) and we've received nothing but pushback from the two largest industry players in the US. They've bought up and shelved so many innovative products over the past decade because they might upset the apple cart.

What it boils down to is the major players in the industry essentially saying "disabled people don't deserve the best technology we have to offer because we don't make enough money off it," and I want everyone to be as pissed off about that as we are.