Telo Design
(Image from Telo Design)
Telo Design is redesigning the ubiquitous rollator walker for the largely underserved community of younger people with reduced mobility due to chronic illness. The company’s founders learned that these walkers, whose design hasn’t changed much since their inception in the 1970s, limited some younger users’ independence and made them feel stigmatized.
Co-founder Steven Bleau, who recently earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial and product design, grew up in a family affected by multiple sclerosis and understood those pain points. He is also aiming to solve some of the most pressing problems with walkers: their tendency to get away from users and their effect on posture and gait.
Bleau flipped the walker’s design so the device is behind the user and can wirelessly transmit information to a mobile app for the user and their physical therapist to flag problems and track progress.
You can watch a video of Telo’s story here.
