October 1st marked the 4 year anniversary of inventing the Access Trax portable pathway system. Co-founders Kelly & Eric tested their first hand-made pathway prototype at a WSA surfing event in Ocean Beach, California. The two occupational therapy students had set out to solve the problem of sand and other outdoor terrain being a barrier to people who use wheelchairs. Inspired by adaptive surfers, it was only natural to test out their design at a surf competition to get feedback.
On that hot, sunny day, OT students from the assistive technology class gathered to help move two 10-foot sections of hand-made pathway down hundreds of feet of sand to the event area. As the adaptive surfers wheeled down one section of path in their wheelchair, students would move the other section out in front in a "leap frog" fashion. Kelly and Eric learned two things that day: the pathway concept worked, and the adaptive surfers wanted more of it. "That's when we knew this had to be developed into a scalable product to empower millions of people around the world to access the outdoors," Kelly recalls.
"That's when we knew this had to be developed into a scalable product to empower millions of people around the world to access the outdoors,"
The journey from a hand-made design to a final product certainly wasn't easy. It involved thousands of dollars on prototype design and manufacturing, launching the company in 2018, and continuing product development based on feedback from users. In an effort to pay homage to the process and celebrate the progress, Kelly has made a special video montage featuring never before seen footage from the early days. We could never have gotten this far without the support of our family, friends, customers, and partners. Thank you to each and every one of you! We look forward to many more years of innovation as we continue the mission of empowering people to access the outdoors and recreation.
We look forward to many more years of innovation as we continue the mission of empowering people to access the outdoors and recreation.
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