The Outdoors Shouldn't End Where The Sidewalk Does.

I'm Erin Michael, a physical therapist with more than 20 years of experience helping people move through the world — from babies through older adults — in the hospital, clinic, schools, and adaptive sports programs. TreadBeyond™ began with a moment I watched repeat itself: children I work with walked independently indoors (with or without a walking device), then were stopped the moment they reached the outdoors.  This winter, I watch these children struggle during outdoor recess in Minnesota (with a foot of snow and ice on the surface of the playground)—their walkers couldn’t move over snow/ice and their fear of falling kept them from venturing onto the playground, so they sat on the sidelines as they watched their friends enjoy the winter wonderland. Knowing we would have a month’s long Winter season, it wasn’t acceptable that they would have to either sit on the edge of the playground away from the group or be pulled around in a sled each day for months on end.  I tried to adapt what existed on the market and when that didn’t work, I searched for a solution in the market, disappointed to discover nothing existed to offer as a solution.  Knowing this problem would continue to exist for months and repeat itself each year, I decided to design the solution that didn't exist. For twenty years, I’ve adapted existing equipment to fit the needs of the people I help support-- TreadBeyond™ is the first device that will not need to be adapted because it was built with universal access and user insights in mind from the start.

The Invisible Problem:  A Problem Hiding In Plain Sight

Here's what most people never notice—every conventional walking device (walkers, rollators canes, forearm crutches, gait trainers) is built primarily for use over smooth, level, indoor floors. The moment a person reaches outdoor surfaces (e.g., uneven, unpredictable terrain— snow, ice, sand, grass, gravel, mulch, a trail, a backyard), the device typically sinks, slips, or simply stops working because today’s walking devices weren’t designed with the outdoors in mind. It remains an invisible problem because it doesn’t affect much of the population, but for those individuals and families that it does—it’s a huge barrier to overcome. Being unable to physical access the real work outside for everyday life and for recreational/leisure activities, not only impacts a person’s physical health (decrease in strength, balance, endurance; increased weight gain) it also affects their mental health (the inability to leave the home or move beyond solid, level surfaces outside—sidewalks, driveways, parking lots—leads to a sense of loneliness and isolation) and ability to stay connected with their friends and family (missing opportunities to actively participate in group activities with those they care about, further contributing to a feeling of being left out). 

For individuals in this community, the questions regarding the ability to venture outside the home start before they even leave their house: Can my body handle the terrain to get where I want to go? Will my mobility device even work there? What workarounds will I need? Accessibility considerations don’t begin at the destination — it begins the moment someone leaves home. Too often, the answers to these questions involve extra planning, extra time and extra energy and when no viable solution is found, the person is left with the only option of not going at all.  This isn't a niche inconvenience—its real-world impact increasing isolation, inactivity, and declining physical and mental health, hiding in plain sight, at any age, for any reason—has lifelong consequences.

70 million Americans and 1.3 billion people worldwide live with a functional disability and for many of them, this is their reality and they are stopped where the sidewalk ends.  This problem has gone unaddressed until now— TreadBeyond™ is the solution—it’s a product that eliminates the workarounds, removes excessive planning and restores independence, allowing a person to live their life and go wherever life takes them because the outdoors belongs to everyone.

What TreadBeyond Is:  One device—Every Terrain.

TreadBeyond™ is a first-of-its-kind all terrain mobility platform (patent pending)—it includes four device tiers (walker, forearm crutches, cane, and trekking pole) and a family of eight different interchangeable all-terrain base modules.  A user selects which device to use based on their level of ability then chooses which base modules to use based on the terrain they expect to encounter and what level of support they need (e.g., stability, mobility or a combination of both).  All bases swap in seconds, without tools. The same platform that works outdoors seamlessly transitions indoors and functions inside.  It uses a tool-free locking system, so it quickly breaks down, which allows for easy travel by car, plane, bus, or train. It’s the first walking device that adapts to the person and the terrain.

Within the platform, since every device tier works with each base module, the platform grows with a person as well as adapts to the person as their needs change — from a child's first steps outside, to a young adult's recovery from injury/surgery, to an older adult's determination to stay active outdoors— eliminating the need to replace an entire device. It also ends the multiple-device problem—today, one person may need an indoor walker for home, a rollator for the sidewalk, and a cane for tighter spaces — an expensive collection that still leaves the outdoors out of reach. TreadBeyond™ replaces the need for a variety of devices (that still don’t make the outdoors accessible) with one platform. Currently, nothing like TreadBeyond™ exists—not in the durable medical equipment or in the outdoor recreation markets. TreadBeyond™ bridges the gap between indoor and outdoor independence and can supports both markets (individual consumers and institutional buyers) because it offers a universal solution.

The Universal Design Moment:  Designing With Universal Access From The Start Builds Better Products For Everyone

The world around us has man-made and natural barriers that make it inherently inaccessible with the solutions for accessibility tending to be an afterthought. The concept of universal design takes a different approach—it evaluates the broad range of human needs and experiences from the outset and creates solutions that account for everyone — making things easier to use, more intuitive and accessible to the widest possible range of people from the beginning, rather than as an add-on later. Universal design starts the process with accessibility in mind and it ends with a better product for everyone. This is exactly how I approached designing TreadBeyond™.

When you design for the most significant challenges a person faces, the result is a solution that helps everyone — not just the person it was designed for. Universal design and access supports everyone because it removes the barriers before anyone has to ask for them to be addressed (e.g., the curb cutout on the sidewalk designed for wheelchair access also enables a stroller to have ease of access; the door that opens automatically with a push button designed for someone with limited arm/hand strength also helps a person who has both arms full while).

Universal design and access have become more common place in our schools and indoor spaces (e.g., workplaces, airports, museums, etc.), but has not yet been fully achieved in outdoor settings and recreational equipment offerings; however, this is beginning to change. People with disabilities are the largest minority community in the world, yet they've had the least access and opportunity to participate in the outdoors — because adaptive equipment design has lagged far behind the demonstrated need. Across the outdoor industry, new and exciting innovations are now being designed starting with the adaptive community in mind first, which also ends up benefiting everyone else with more practical, functional and easy to use products.  The demand for these new innovations is real and growing. The largest untapped participants in the outdoors aren't the enthusiasts — it’s the person standing at the trailhead or the edge of the beach for the very first time or someone finding their way back to the outdoors after an illness or injury—it’s the unsure and underserved that are most eager to experience the outdoors.  TreadBeyond™ is designed to give access to the outdoors for those who need it most, but its capabilities enable everyone to benefit.