Launching a Wheelchair Charging Station Finder
We wanted to create a simple way to find places to charge your wheelchair and a simple way to add a Charging Station listing to the map with hopes of encouraging all government agencies, churches and non-profits to add a charging space and station and list it on the map.
We are starting in Southern Oregon but hope this takes off globally.
Thanks to Dee Anne Everson at United Way of Jackson County. She gave me the inspiration via a simple email and found grants and helped get the first locations on the map.
Thank you Pacific Power, Siskiyou Outback Runners and US Bank for your support.
In March of 2023 Dee-Anne from the United Way of Jackson County sent me an email introducing herself and asking if I knew of a website to find wheelchair charging stations that worked like how you find charging stations for cars.
I researched it via Google and couldn’t find any, although I found a chair bound individual, Darrin Umbarger, in Prineville, Oregon that created charging stations back in 2015 and installed several of them in Umatilla County and one in Salem.
I decided that a map for charging stations is a great idea, so I decided to ask the team at Project A to develop one as a gift to the community.
We built it with the idea that it would be easy to find one and easy to add charging stations. It would be free to use.
And then it sat empty. Like so many of my community gifts, it waited to be discovered and used.
Thankfully Dee-Anne got to work. She reached out to several businesses and found out that Pacific Power has mobility grants. Together with help from Siskiyou Outback Runners and US Bank she gathered the funds and purchased 100 chargers and signs and a bag to hold the charger.
This site would be empty if not for Dee-Annes hard work. She pushed this over the finish line.
We officially launched the website on Feb 14, 2024 (Our Valentines Gift to the community) and already have 45 chargers on the map in less than 10 days.
It’s very exciting. We had local news coverage. Lots of Jackson County businesses are excited to provide this tool.
The map is designed to work around the world. I hope it grows beyond Jackson County.
The grant may run out for free stations but honestly it doesn’t cost that much to get a station.
My hope is that every public institution will add a dedicated safe space for free wheelchair charging. That’s every public facing government building, school, library and social service center.
I’d also love to see every non-profit that provides public access to offer this as well.
Check it out at https://wheelchairchargingoregon.com/ and let me know what you think.
If you want to launch this in your community let me know. I’d love to help.
The site will support every location, for free, globally. It will default to the area around the person using the map to find a station no matter where they are.
Jim Teece
JimTeece.com
jim@projecta.com
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