SF State engineering instructor wins design award

SF State engineering instructor Ralf Hotchkiss has been designing and building wheelchairs for almost 30 years.

In that time, he has created functional, affordable wheelchairs for people all over the world, especially for those in developing countries.

Earlier this month, Hotchkiss earned the Chrysler Award for Innovation in Design for his visionary wheelchair designs and dedication to improving accessibility for people with disabilities. Hotchkiss, 47, who is interested in making "all-terrain" wheelchairs, says the chairs are just arriving to the stage which bicycles were at during the turn of the century.

"Today's wheelchair won't go up a steep hill at all," he said, adding, "The best wheelchair should be able to go down any road that a jeep could go down and still be perfectly functional in the kitchen or the outhouse."

He says his wheelchairs are different because they can be built easily with affordable materials. Wheelchairs in the United States cost between $1,000 and $2,000. The ones made by Hotchkiss' network of builders cost between $100 and $300, he said.

"They can be manufactured anywhere. It's very hard for a manufacturer to keep a monopoly because anybody can compete with them easily," he said.

Hotchkiss, who is also the technical director of the Wheeled Mobility Center on campus, started designing wheelchairs because he wanted a better one for himself.

"I started riding one in '66 and the one they gave me was pure trash," he said.

Now Hotchkiss spends his time between the Wheeled Mobility Center and his extended education Engineering 620 class designing and helping create wheelchairs that are better and cheaper.

Kurt Kornbluth, 31, a technician at the center and an SF State student studying for his master's degree in engineering, has taken Hotchkiss' wheelchair construction class.

"He lets people learn a lot on their own and come up with their own ideas," Kornbluth said. "He's very into sharing technology. His goal is to get people in wheelchairs who need them and I think he's doing that through his designs."

Through the Wheeled Mobility Center, Hotchkiss has established a network of over 30 shops in 25 countries.

He gets many of his design ideas from other countries, incorporates them into his wheelchairs and then gives back by teaching others especially in developing countries how to manufacture them.

"It goes around and around," Hotchkiss said.

One example of an idea he adapted to one of his wheelchair designs is the "Zimbabwe wheel," which Hotchkiss uses as the wheelchair's front wheel.

The wheel, which is for "rough-ground" use is capable of traversing muddy and sandy areas and is tougher than the front wheels used in the west.

"When I first saw (the wheel) in '88 in Zimbabwe on pushcarts, we had been looking for nearly 10 years for some front wheel design that would do everything that the Zimbabwe wheel does," he said.

Another one of Hotchkiss goals is to make electric-powered wheelchairs that people in developing countries can afford. In the United States, electric-powered wheelchairs cost between $4,000 and $10,000.

When he isn't traveling around the globe giving workshops and sharing techniques, Hotchkiss is trying to improve accessibility at home.

He gives SF State a "B+" for its wheelchair accessibility. One building entrance on campus, he says, that needs improvement is the entrance to the Thornton Hall observatory.

Even though progress has been made for people with disabilities, Hotchkiss says, discrimination continues.

When he became a wheelchair rider at 18, he had been working as a trainee for an engineering company. The company he worked for was at first very supportive after his accident. They welcomed him back to his old job and modified his work station to make it more accessible.

But after a year, when he reached the point where he could attain seniority, the company fired him.

"They said 'sorry we have a company policy. We don't take anybody with the possibility of bigger medical bills than somebody else. Goodbye,'" Hotchkiss said.

He appealed the decision to the chair of the company's board of directors where it was eventually overturned and he was rehired.

In addition to the Chrysler award, Hotchkiss' visionary designs won him the $50,000 Henry B. Betts Award last year and the MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" in 1989.

To win the Chrysler Award, Hotchkiss had to beat out over 100 designers and design companies to become one of only six winners.

"Innovative design represents more than just beauty," said Tom Gale, Chrysler Vice President of Product Design. "Technological benefits, accessibility to a diverse range of people and the ability to convey ideas and messages are equally important. Each of our 1995 winners has been selected for their contributions to one or all of these areas."

The Chrysler Award, which includes $10,000, was given to Hotchkiss Aug. 15 at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where one of his wheelchairs is being displayed.

"The exhibit has been very popular. There's been a lot of local and national media attention and we've actually had people who are disabled call to see how they can get in touch with Ralf because they're interested in possibly purchasing one of the wheelchairs," said Sandra Sloan, publicist for the museum.

The exhibition, titled "Subjects and Objects: The Chrysler Award for Innovation in Design," includes the work of past and present award winners and runs through Dec. 3.

[ back to Golden Gater Online August 31, 1995 ]

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