Hmm, I am curious how many wheelchair users are asking for AI- and drone-enabled wheelchairs.

IEEE: AI Aims for Autonomous Wheelchair Navigation

New chairs track obstacles while drones map the room

https://spectrum.ieee.org/autonomous-smart-wheelchair

#accessibility

AI Wheelchair Technology Moves Closer to Reality

AI smart wheelchairs promise autonomy, but cost and reliability remain hurdles.

IEEE Spectrum

@ai6yr it's a fair question.

Most people who are wheel enhanced i know love their autonomy and agency, but I do not know how many would welcome this.

Maybe this post will find people want it.

I did a wheelchair experiment in a hospital once. Naval Hospital Orlando, my last day as staff there, I did in a wheelchair in uniform.

It's amazing how different the world is from that perspective. And that was one day. Not a life.

I should write about that sometime. You jogged that memory.

@ai6yr I wrote it up.

It's long, but I think the back story is important.

I learned a fraction of a fraction of what it was like.

And it felt good to write. Lived experience feels that way expressed. I didn't do enough of that this week.

https://realityfragments.com/2026/03/21/wheelchair/

Wheelchair - RealityFragments.com

The wheelchair picture has a purpose, but I have to do some background.

RealityFragments.com

@ai6yr Well... one critic that was upset.

They've blocked me after some insults, which is fine.

I want to clarify my intent, though.

I wrote about trust. I wrote about who is seen. I did it from the only perspective I have: mine.

It's honest.

So if others have things to say, fire away.

But my intent was simply to write what I know.

@knowprose Huh, explain what "Semper Gumby" is. I had seen someone else post that and had no idea it was actually a military thing.

@ai6yr It's a play on Semper Fidelis. 'Always faithful'.

When I was in, 'Gumby' was that flexible children's character.

So particularly Corpsmen who worked with Marines would say in my era, "Semper Gumby': Always flexible.

It fits a lot of things, so it went beyond that boundary. Something needs to get done, it gets done however you can.

Had a Corpsman I worked with that was called 'Doc Duct Tape'. Semper Gumby. :)

@ai6yr I actually had a Gumby pin I sometimes wore in the field on my back so people could tell who 'Doc' was.

LOL.

@ai6yr Wow...

It has it's own wikipedia page now!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semper_Gumby

Semper Gumby - Wikipedia