When Pamela Daly got new wheelchair brakes, they rattled and didn’t work. She complained to the manufacturer but after a month was still waiting for replacements. Daly, a disability rights advocate, was late to an event at the State House because the chair slipped while she was getting into it and she fell to the floor and had to call paramedics.
Daly’s brake problem is among a litany of complaints wheelchair users have made about shoddy fixes and lengthy waits for repairs by the two companies that control a majority of the wheelchair market — Numotion and National Seating and Mobility.