Frank Masyada of Gainesville, Florida, had never given much thought to how a person with a disability managed to shower in a hotel or motel. His company, Capital A. Engineering, focuses on designing large-scale, sophisticated machinery for a wide range of uses. So in 1992, when a paraplegic neighbor asked Masyada to design a portable bath chair, his first thought was that surely there was a product already on the market that would do the job. As a favor to his friend, however, Masyada did a little research. "The bath chairs I found didn’t disassemble," he recalls. "They were bulky and awkward, and would ave been embarrassing to lug across a hotel lobby. At the same time, it’s dangerous for someone who has no feeling in their lower body to take a shower without the right kind of support equipment."Frank Masyada and one of his engineers, Ted Williams, put their heads together and designed a bath chair made of a sophisticated, plastic like material that could be used over a commode or in a shower. The reedom Chair weighs 16 pounds, supports up to 450 pounds, and easily collapses small enough to be packed discreetly in a suitcase. And since the Freedom Chair is made of a glass reinforced resin, unlike he chrome or wood used to make similar products, it can be manufactured in a wide range of colors, which adds a decorative touch. The chair got such a positive reception, Masyada realized he was on to something.
With four partners, he formed Freedom Engineering and Design, applied for the necessary patents on the chair, and went looking for funding to manufacture it. He approached large international materials companies with the proposal: In return for the $300,00 necessary to get production underway, the investing companies would be entitled to use their affiliation with his company in their advertisements, and have the assurance of being Freedom Engineering’s primary materials supplier. Masyada expects the Freedom Chair to be on the market by March and predicts, first-year sales of $5 million. He is also marketing the chair to senior citizens and others who have conditions that partially or occasionally limit their mobility. In keeping with his goal to offer more choices, superior design and quality production at affordable prices, Masyada is developing another chair and a portable exercise bicycle designed to attach to a wheelchair. "Our next chair has a unique gearing design - not a motor - that will allow a 300-pound person to raise and lower themselves in the tub with the touch of a finger," Frank Masyada says. "And the exercise bicycle uses an oval motion to provide full hip xtension."Masyada also wants to offer people with disabilities more than just products: He is setting up a sales network that will allow them to make money. He believes using direct sales rather than placing his products in retail outlets will keep costs down and sales up. "Most disabled people don’t shop in retail stores, and when they do, they have a choice of only two or three items (designed for them)," Masyada explains. "We’re trying to hire a very large work force of disabled people. They’ll have products they use and like, and they’ll make very nice commissions when they sell those products to others."
The ADA has opened a lot of doors for people with disabilities, both figuratively and literally Publicity about the ADA has increases public awareness of what disabled people need to function in society as consumers and contributors. Requirements that public accommodations be made accessible to everyone have forced businesses to look for ways to bring their facilities up to par. As these companies put their compliance plans in motion, they are creating a peripheral market for inventors of products designed to indirectly help people with disabilities. John Pace of Salt Lake City identified that market then clients of his architectural design firm expressed their concerns about the ADA. "Our clients needed to know where they stood in regard to this legislation,"Pace says. Besides the obvious professional considerations, he and partner Deanne Uriona are especially sensitive to the needs of people with disabilities: Uriona has disabled relatives, and Pace has suffered a hearing loss.
When the state of Utah asked design firms to propose ways to evaluate existing buildings for architectural barriers and devise plans to remove them, Pace and Uriona developed a software package that could do the compliance report in a fraction of the time traditional methods took. "It can take anywhere from half a day to several days to manually collect all the data necessary to evaluate a building, then three to five times that to develop a report," Pace says, "it just made sense to computerize the process."Pace and Uriona formed Kokomo Software Inc. two years ago. Their computer programs, ADAAG (ADA Accessibility Guidelines) Express and ADAAG Reporter, assist in the physical survey of a site, then generate a report within a week to be used in developing a plan to bring the building up to compliance. The primary market for the programs is commercial - including architectural firms, consultants and governments.Similarly, Frank Masyada sees a tremendous market for the Freedom Chair with commercial buyers. "Before the ADA, major hotels didn’t want to buy products to help the disabled", he says. The ADA has forced change, and Masyada plans to capitalize on it by offering chairs featuring logos of hotels and other businesses. This way, clients gain a marketing benefit and a positive image while at the same time complying with the legislation.Since liability is a special area of concern for inventors of products for people with disabilities, extensive testing and adequate insurance are essential. However, Congress has seen fit to protect inventors of certain categories of products, including those for the disabled, by assing laws that limit their liability. Frank Masyada advises checking with an attorney to see if your product is eligible for this liability limitation. "But don’t use that as a crutch," he says. "Make the best possible product you can."
The ADA has opened a lot of doors for people with disabilities, both figuratively and literally Publicity about the ADA has increases public awareness of what disabled people need to function in society as consumers and contributors. Requirements that public accommodations be made accessible to everyone have forced businesses to look for ways to bring their facilities up to par. As these companies put their compliance plans in motion, they are creating a peripheral market for inventors of products designed to indirectly help people with disabilities. John Pace of Salt Lake City identified that market then clients of his architectural design firm expressed their concerns about the ADA. "Our clients needed to know where they stood in regard to this legislation,"Pace says. Besides the obvious professional considerations, he and partner Deanne Uriona are especially sensitive to the needs of people with disabilities: Uriona has disabled relatives, and Pace has suffered a hearing loss.
When the state of Utah asked design firms to propose ways to evaluate existing buildings for architectural barriers and devise plans to remove them, Pace and Uriona developed a software package that could do the compliance report in a fraction of the time traditional methods took. "It can take anywhere from half a day to several days to manually collect all the data necessary to evaluate a building, then three to five times that to develop a report," Pace says, "it just made sense to computerize the process."Pace and Uriona formed Kokomo Software Inc. two years ago. Their computer programs, ADAAG (ADA Accessibility Guidelines) Express and ADAAG Reporter, assist in the physical survey of a site, then generate a report within a week to be used in developing a plan to bring the building up to compliance. The primary market for the programs is commercial - including architectural firms, consultants and governments.Similarly, Frank Masyada sees a tremendous market for the Freedom Chair with commercial buyers. "Before the ADA, major hotels didn’t want to buy products to help the disabled", he says. The ADA has forced change, and Masyada plans to capitalize on it by offering chairs featuring logos of hotels and other businesses. This way, clients gain a marketing benefit and a positive image while at the same time complying with the legislation.Since liability is a special area of concern for inventors of products for people with disabilities, extensive testing and adequate insurance are essential. However, Congress has seen fit to protect inventors of certain categories of products, including those for the disabled, by assing laws that limit their liability. Frank Masyada advises checking with an attorney to see if your product is eligible for this liability limitation. "But don’t use that as a crutch," he says. "Make the best possible product you can."
