Tune Ups at the Healthy Living Festival

We were incredibly excited to participate in one of the most significant annual events committed to all of Alameda county’s seniors, The Healthy Living Festival. A few key team members showed their support for our agency. They educated Alameda County senior citizens and other agencies serving the community regarding what our Wheelchair Roadside Assistance Service, also known as FASTER (Fast, Accessible, Safe, Transportation & Equipment Repair), can do for them if they end up stranded .

Our FASTER program is available in Alameda, Albany, Berkeley, Castro Valley, Emeryville, Hayward, San Leandro, San Lorenzo, and Oakland. If your wheelchair or other assistive device breaks down, clients can call our Urgent Dispatch line to receive emergency repairs and transportation free of charge. Our FASTER technician will first attempt to diagnose your device’s issue over the phone; if they can’t fix the problem, they’ll come to your location to attempt basic repairs. If they can’t repair your device, they’ll transport you to a safe location free of charge.

This service is vital to individuals that rely on wheelchairs for personal mobility; if these devices break down, their users often have no alternative to fulfill their mobility needs and are stranded until the device can be repaired or replaced, at a significant financial expense to them. It can sometimes be life-threatening, depending on where/when the device breaks down. Therefore, FASTER is essential to the disabled community; nothing like it exists nationwide. Services that even come close are prohibitively expensive to the point that most wheelchair users wouldn’t rely on them. Thanks to the Alameda County Transportation Commission and our technicians, this isn’t an issue for people with disabilities, users of mobility devices, and wheelchair users. Many of whom are senior citizens.

At the Healthy Living Festival, our technicians got to demonstrate the importance of our work in real-time. Repair technicians Rodney & John were eager to provide event attendees with fast repairs to their assistive devices and offer tips to maintain them better. Our technicians were able to give many seniors essential adjustments to brakes and other equipment that is vital to the continued operation of their assistive devices . Whether it be a wheelchair, walker, scooter, or other mobility devices, they all need routine care to continue serving their users. Whether It was a walker or slick power chair complete with Harley Davidson decals, their efforts positively impacted the future EDI clients they assisted.

A huge thank you to Rodney & John for their dedication to their work. Their in-depth knowledge of power chairs, walkers, and other assistive devices has empowered festival attendees to use their equipment better and potentially even avoid calling us for FASTER services in the future.