The car that can't get wet

Imagine this scene at a car dealership as you're signing your papers to close the deal:

Salesman: Okay now this is your warranty and owner's manual. Read it over and let me know if you have any questions.
Customer: Wait a minute. It says here that I can't get the car wet? Does that mean I can't use it in the rain?
Salesman: Wellll, to be safe, you really shouldn't get it wet. See what it says there? Avoid rain.
Customer: Avoid rain? It says that it's built to withstand getting it out of a sudden rain but that if it gets wet, I have to let it sit for 24 hours and call a technician if it does anything - erratic. What does that mean?
Salesman: What it says, sir. You know, like going backwards instead of forwards. Or not starting.
Customer: You mean it can break down if it gets wet? How am I going to go to work? What if I get stranded somewhere? How can you get away with selling a car like this?
Salesman: They're all made like that now, sir. It's just the way it is. Listen, if there's any problem, just call us and we'll send a technician out. Of course, it's not covered. You'll have to pay that out of pocket.

I offer the above scenario as an idea of how people would react if they were told when spending that kind of money that they couldn't use their mobility device (i.e. a car) to go out when it rained. Yet power chairs have been made this way for years. The power chair I have goes for around 10,000 dollars - a price that you can easily get a car for. And its owner's manual has a warning that if it starts to rain, I better find shelter quickly because this sucker isn't built to withstand being out in the rain.

There is a power chair made by a company overseas that apparently uses a seal of some kind to make it waterproof, but the price is exorbitant. So apparently the technology exists, although the price of that chair is even higher.

The question remains: why does a piece of mobility equipment that costs that amount of money still have a design that prevents it from being used outside? (Before anyone tells me you can throw a poncho over yourself and your chair, let me just say that my vendor says then I'm taking my chances - and so does my manual. It's on me if the chair breaks (i.e. the electronic equipment or batteries have to be replaced/repaired) and, since insurance doesn't cover that, I'm out of pocket if it does. So basically I'm taking a risk by doing that, which shifts the whole scenario to me as a consumer. And you when you do that, which a lot of people do because they have to go out in the rain.)

Now Abledata offers the following advice: Avoid RAIN and SNOW which are especially hazardous to power wheelchair users, and to their expensive equipment. Try to stay out of falling rain or snow; try to stay off wet, slippery surfaces coated with rain or snow. If you have to travel in rain or snow, use a wheelchair van, door to door.

Where are our rights as consumers of mobility products? Yeah, hand someone their car keys and say "Try to stay out of falling rain or snow, try to stay off wet, slippery surfaces coated with rain or snow."

I guess I'm supposed to go out and buy a really expensive accessible vehicle to transport this power chair. Now who does that benefit? Yet another mobility product dealer. Not the consumer. So please - let's think carefully before putting that additional cost on those of us who are just trying to afford the wheelchair itself. Mass transit? Well, uh, yeah but what about waiting for it in the - rain? And it doesn't go door to door.

If they tried to pawn off cars (mobility devices) to people that couldn't get wet, there would be an uproar. And I suggest to you this radical idea: a car, as important as it is to a person's mobility, is less important than a wheelchair is to a person's mobility.

So why, oh why, can power chairs still not get wet? Or - let's put it this way - if they do, why is that the consumer's problem? We need to raise our expectations about our mobility products. Because, after all, we need to - and should - be able to use it for mobility.