 “I’m a T11/T12 para and had my accident in 1997, thankfully it was at work and my employer paid WorkCover. This has allowed my life to continue with the benefit of one especially life-changing piece of kit paid for by WorkCover. It’s a two-wheel self-balancing wheelchair called a “Genny”. It came from Switzerland in 2017 and there are a number of them in Victoria & around Australia.Â
                             As you see in the photo the “Genny” allows you to go places, especially outdoors, where you’d struggle in any other wheelchair. My VW Passat wagon also has a hoist for the “Genny” which fits easily in and out in seconds.
There are Australian-based sales and services for the “Genny” which are already here in the Australian disabled community. There are also many occupational therapists who prepare reports & recommendations for clients to receive WorkCover and NDIS-funded equipment like the “Genny”. The OTs can specify these chairs as the most suitable for across-the-board uses from everyday living, and mall-shopping, through to recreation uses like beach and bush walks, and can be transported free on airlines as personal baggage for international travel.
I’m a huge advocate for the life-changing benefits that self-balancing two-wheeled wheelchairs can provide to people with varying disabilities. We need to make more people aware of those benefits so more funding applications are submitted and devices like the “Genny” or the “Hoss” from Austria (which, like some new cars, can be fault diagnosed remotely via the web), become more prevalent and affordable, just as cars and mobile phones have, in the disabled community in Australia.
Warrick, Melbourne Australia.”