Our medical aids (DME, or Durable Medical Equipment) are designed with planned obsolescence, closed-source, and perhaps most importantly, without our input. Companies do not hire or seek to hire severely disabled engineers who actually use the products being developed. Instead, medical equipment is designed for insurance companies who will "pay the bill" - leaving out millions of Americans who must use GoFundMe or other means to get their needs met. For the lucky few who can get an expensive medical device, the question is: how can we get repairs done? Most people can't afford it. DME shops have little to no incentive to do repairs, preferring to bill insurance for a brand new one (and send people through months of waiting and doctors' appointments to try and get approval). This causes major harm to disabled people, the environment, and (often) taxpayers.

CriptasticHacker has a solution. He's been doing his own wheelchair repairs since 2012 and has documented many of these repairs and upgrades on his YouTube channel. Now, with the passage of SB 244, he finally has a direct line to the technicians of his wheelchair - something unthinkable even a couple of years ago! The struggle continues in getting access to his firmware and battery charging info so he can keep his chair running for many years to come, and help others in that process as well.