Haifa incorporates 'floaty wheelchair' for disabled people to visit beach
The new chair reportedly consists of three balloon wheels, an aluminum fram, and two side floats that also serve as handles.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFA special kind of wheelchair for built by the Haifa Municipality for disabled people (photo credit: REUVEN COHEN/ HAIFA MUNICIPALITY)
The Haifa Municipality has incorporated a "floaty wheelchair" having floating devices designed to enter the water on the beach, to improve accessibility to the city's beaches for people with disabilities. The new chair consists of three balloon wheels, an aluminum frame and two side floats that also serve as handles.Israel has seen a massive struggle with the state's approach to the rights of people with disabilities, with constant protests taking over major junctions and disrupting traffic to raise the allowances for disabled people to minimum wage, calling for better accessibility at crucial facilities, and so on.Several independent groups have therefore made an effort to incorporate tools such as the newly-installed wheelchair in Haifa to better assist people living with disabilities in their day-to-day lives.In recent months, disabled IDF veterans have taken to the streets to speak out about their own mistreatment and the neglect they see from the state after withstanding significant trials and injuries during their army services.This intensified after IDF veteran Itzik Saidian, a disabled man who was injured during his army service, lit himself on fire in front of the Defense Ministry's Rehabilitation Division in April.
