How mobility scooters went from garage project to multibillion-dollar industry
You see me rollin’
It was called The Amigo, a name as dear as its origin story. Plumber Allan R. Thieme invented the first power-operated scooter in 1968. Frustrated with the mobility options available to a family member with multiple sclerosis, Thieme spent nights building the small yellow scooter in his garage in Bridgeport, Michigan. The finished product scooted along at 3–4 miles per hour. Thieme named it The Amigo, the “friendly wheelchair.”
The brand still operates today, but is just a tiny player in what has become a massive assistive technology industry — one that’s making people a lot of money. As life expectancy skyrockets and public attitudes about disability improve, the market for products like mobility scooters has multiplied exponentially.
Nearly one in four Americans is expected to have a disability by 2030. “It’s not charity any longer,” Jani Nayar, executive coordinator for the Society for Accessible Travel and Hospitality, told The New York Times. “This is good for business.”
The US assistive technology market is projected to grow from $43.1 billion in 2015 to $58.3 billion in 2020. These numbers include a wide range of products, from contact lenses to walking canes. The global mobility wheelchair industry alone will reach $2.4 billion by 2021.
Electric wheelchairs typically run on four wheels and may be foldable for easy transportation. On the other hand, a mobility scooter is typically larger, runs on three or more wheels, and features a handlebar-style steering device. They are usually recommended for people able to sit upright without assistance. Electric wheelchairs range in price from $1,000-$3,500; mobility scooters cost roughly $600-$2,000.
Scooter sales were slow into the early 1970s despite the invention of The Amigo, according to its inventor Allan Thieme. But competitors nonetheless recognized the product’s business potential in a booming demographic of active seniors, and other brands began to pop up.
However, two major barriers were diffusion of technology and an overly complex federal reimbursement process. According to The Market for Wheelchairs: Innovations and Federal Policy, published in 1984, doctors mainly wrote prescriptions for standard wheelchairs because they didn’t know or understand the many powered offerings available. Scooter brands were only beginning to ramp up medical marketing, via trade shows and informational sessions. Second, scooter brands like the Amigo were not classified as wheelchairs and therefore not eligible for federal reimbursement. The Amigo had to secure a congressional amendment to obtain coverage. By the mid-80s, the federal government (mainly Medicare, Medicaid, and the VA) paid for almost half of wheelchairs purchased.
Then, the population using wheelchairs and walkers doubled between 1980 and 1990, which accounts for all those Rascal infomercials. The number “far exceeds what could be attributed to the aging of the population,” according to a report by the Institute for Health and Aging at the University of California, San Francisco. (Though every day for the next 14 years, 10,000 Baby Boomers will reach age 65.) Westerners also have higher expectations for richer ways to participate in society, and public attitude has (mostly) shifted to include those rights.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) had finally implemented reimbursement modifications that made scooters more economically accessible than ever. By focusing on function criteria, such as reaching the toilet or eating, clinicians assessed a patient’s mobility needs through a “stepped” system, beginning with the simplest (canes, crutches) and progressing to manual wheelchairs, scooters, and power wheelchairs. “From a Medicare reimbursement point of view, a lot of hurdles were removed for this market to grow,” Pieter Leenhouts of Sunrise Medical told HomeCare Magazine in 2006.
As power wheelchairs and scooters exploded into a multi-billion-dollar cash cow, customers increasingly demanded the full, active lifestyles they were used to.
“It used to be when you got old, you just had to stay home,” Angie, a Tempeh, Arizona, retiree told The Chicago Tribune in 2004. Her husband Virgil purchased a power wheelchair that year. “Now my husband, who has trouble walking more than 30 feet, can go out into the yard, get to a table in a restaurant and go with me to the mall.”
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 made it illegal to discriminate based on disability. As more spaces became accessible via ramps, elevators, and other means, scooters became far more useful.
“Scooters have now become products that aren’t so medical looking,” Kristen Imperiale, Pride Mobility’s director of marketing, told HomeCare. “They don’t have that stigma, so it’s much more acceptable for somebody to be going away on a vacation and running around on a scooter.”
In fact, brands began to market mobility scooters as fashionable leisure and travel accessories. Some models are named “Vegas” or were designed to look like Vespas. “Just like boating or other recreational activities, as awareness improves, scooters become more of a lifestyle or leisure product, and the market’s size will continue to grow as…acceptability continues this trend,” said David Lin, president of Shoprider Mobility Products. Disneyland rents “electric conveyance vehicles” for $50 per day.
Unfortunately, as with most marginalized populations, as accessibility for disabled people increased, so did harmful stereotypes. Tumblrs and South Park episodes poke fun at Walmart shoppers who require scooters, comedians routinely jerk thumbs toward chair-assisted obese people. Internet users the world over wonder: How many of the people driving mobility scooters actually need a mobility scooter? It doesn’t help that rentable scooters at places like Disneyland are seen as “optional” for people who may be able to walk, but not easily or without pain. “If someone sees you in a wheelchair, they assume you are 100% disabled, but with us [scooter users] they are confused,” Shaun Greenhalgh told The Guardian.
“It’s a cultural issue. People are larger and, dare I say it, lazier,” an industry spokesman said in the same article, asking that his name be withheld. “People are using them as a mode of transport rather than public transport or a car.”
Few experts will comment on whether the rise in obesity correlates with the increased number of scooters. Without formal research, it’s conjecture at best and coincidence at least. “Obesity is a disease that is mostly out of the individual’s control,” says Lucas Carr, assistant professor of health and human physiology at the University of Iowa. “Therefore, characterizing obese people as lazy is a form of weight stigmatization that is based on a misunderstanding of the true causes of the disease.”
The choice of a scooter continues to be a tradeoff between personal mobility and public suspicion, especially if one’s body or abilities are stigmatized. The Amigo was first invented simply to help people — any people — participate in life more fully. It became incredibly successful and rightfully so. Yet even with its newfound ease, it’s still an act of bravery to use one.
