Originally posted on: USA Today
Adrianna Rodriguez
USA TODAY
A father’s love for his daughter led to a long overdue innovation for the disability community.
Grammy-nominated songwriter Barry Dean was concerned about the lack of safety features in powered wheelchairs after a friend’s mother tipped her chair over a ramp, cut her face and broke her bones.
When he heard that, all he could think about was his 19-year-old daughter Katherine who has cerebral palsy and has been in a wheelchair all her life.
“My daughter had her spine fused which means she has two and a half dozen screws,” he said. “I’m worried that if she falls, the trauma could be horrible.”
That’s when he got together with his brother, Jered, and a team of engineers to create LUCI.
LUCI – named after Katherine’s favorite Beatles song “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” – is a high-tech hardware and software platform that mounts to a power wheelchair to provide stability, security and connectivity.
