Benutzer:Neomicro/Aina Wifalk

Aina Wifalk (21st March 1928 - 16th June 1983) was a Swedish social scientist and inventor of the modern mobility walker.

Life and career

Wifalk was born in Lund, Sweden on March 21st 1928. In 1946, while studying an apprenticeship as a nurse, Wifalk fell ill with Poliomyelitis at the age of 21 years old. The illness forced her to end her apprenticeship. From then on, she became a campaigner for people with disabilities. In 1952, she founded a club for the physically disabled in her hometown of Lund. In 1958, she then founded association for patients with multiple sclerosis in the Västmanland region and 1968, the National Association for Accident Victims in Västerås.

Continuing her education, she studied social sciences. From 1957, she worked as a consultant in the orthopedic clinic in Västerås. At the end of the 1960s, she also advised the city of Västerås on the interests of handicapped people.

Aina Wifalk died in Västerås on 16th June 1983 at the age of 55.

Inventions

The modern mobility walker, Wifalk's most noted invention

Wifalk developed two mobility aids for people with disabilities: the Manuped and the walker. She did not patent her inventions, deciding instead to make them available to as many disabled people as possible. She received only royalties from the sale of her developments, which she bequeathed to the Nordic Church Association on the Spanish Costa del Sol, which she had visited several times during his lifetime.

Manuped

Wifalk presented her first invention to the public in 1965. The "Manuped" is a training device for people with physical disabilities or other disabilities. With the Manuped, users can train their arms and legs, as well as improving coordination. With the Manuped as a basis, various other training devices for physically disabled people were developed in the following decades, many of which are still used today by health services as well as in special sport schools.

Walker

In the 1970s, Wifalk’s movement was more and more restricted by her Poliomyelitis. Since the four-legged walkers available at that time did not meet her requirements for a comfortable walking aid, she began with her own further development. She made the original frame more stable, adding larger wheels and brakes, and a storage or seating surface. She optimized the device for use both inside and outside use. In 1978, Wifalk presented the first draft of her walking frame. With the help of a state development fund, she founded a Swedish company for the production of a prototype. Shortly after, mass production of the walking frame began.

The walker was established worldwide in the following decades. In Germany alone, by the middle of 2016, it is estimated that as many as three million people use Wifalk’s walking frames on a regular basis.

Weblinks

• Aina Wifalk. Biography in the Swedish Museum for Inventors