Ralph Hotchkiss
Co-Founder & CTO of Whirlwind Wheelchair International
Whirlwind Wheelchair International, Co-Founder & CTO
Ralf Hotchkiss is a rehabilitation engineer and a proponent of independent living for disabled people. He is an inventor and designer, whose company, Whirlwind Wheelchair International, designs wheelchairs for use and manufacture in developing countries, involving wheelchair riders in all of its projects and activities. The organization's mission is "To make it possible for every person in the developing world who needs a wheelchair to obtain one that will lead to maximum personal independence and integration into society."
Ralf and Whirlwind Wheelchairs has set up a growing network of factories in twenty-five developing countries, where people with disabilities build state-of-the-art wheelchairs using inexpensive, local materials. His inventions include the Appropriate Technology International-Hotchkiss wheelchair, the “Torbellino Whirlwind.” He is the author of Independence Through Mobility (1985), a work that explains how to make wheelchairs simply and economically. He is currently experimenting with designs for all-terrain, off-road vehicles that will still function as effective wheelchairs in the kitchen, the work site, and the outhouse. His personal goal is to cross Africa by back roads with a vehicle that can be rebuilt by any blacksmith.
Ralf co-founded the Rehabilitation Engineering Technology Program (1987) and the Wheeled Mobility Center (1989) at San Francisco State University, where he is the Distinguished Research Scientist in the Department of Engineering and the Technical Director of Whirlwind Wheelchair International. He also founded the Center for Concerned Engineering (1971) with Ralph Nader. In 1989, Ralf was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship.
Ralf received a B.A. (1969) from Oberlin College.