Reprinted from a Laird press release:
Laird announced today the launch of a new system for mounting a video camera on a wheelchair. This system, named VGO, gives a wheelchair user full control over their video camera. This new wheelchair video system helps broadcasters, educators, AV and media departments meet ADA and Section 508 compliance in a new creative way.
“Up until now, the use of a video camera for someone in a wheelchair has been difficult if not impossible,” said Chase Pierson from DCTV. “Laird has tackled and solved this problem by working with its engineering team, consultants, and from the personal experiences of our own employees who use assistive devices to access technology,” said Laird Director of Operations, Paku Misra.
The broadcast video wheelchair system comes equipped with a steel swing out arm and a camera tripod head mounted on it for safe and steady camera movement. The arm can easily swing out of the way when the user needs to enter or exit their wheelchair. The entire system can be removed simply from the wheelchair by releasing the two locking knobs.
VGO is available with two choices of tripod heads: Either a normal hand operated version or an electronic head that adds automatic controls of camera start, stop, record, lens focus and zoom as well as full pan and tilt capability. All of these features are controlled from a cabled handheld remote.
There is an optional 5.6″ color LCD monitor system and clamp available so users can view exactly what the camera is recording without having to be near the camera.
The VGO wheelchair system brings creative accessibility to people with disabilities for shooting broadcast, wedding, and training videos as well as other multimedia productions.
Laird Telemedia products, including the VGO Wheelchair Video System, are available from a worldwide network of professional dealers. For images and more information about VGO, log on to www.lairdtelemedia.com/pr.
