Reimagining Mobility Through the Eyes of a Caregiver

How One Woman’s Story Sparked a Global Mission to Protect Caregivers and Redefine Mobility Assistance

A Lifetime of Caregiving — and a Moment That Changed Everything

For millions of families, caregiving is an act of love performed quietly, often invisibly. But behind that love is an escalating crisis: an unprecedented shortage of paid Caregivers and an overreliance on family members who lack the tools, training, and support required to keep their loved ones safe.

Across the globe, an estimated 350 million informal Caregivers shoulder daily responsibilities that traditionally belonged to trained professionals (World Health Organization, OECD). In the United States alone, 32 million family Caregivers provide mobility assistance, often using manual wheelchairs never designed with their safety in mind. The result is staggering: 20 million Caregiver-related injuries each year, contributing to more than $100 billion in preventable healthcare costs (CDC, AARP, Statista).

For one Florida Caregiver, this crisis became deeply personal.

The Moment Caregiving Became Dangerous

Susan had spent a lifetime around wheelchairs — first watching her parents’ friends struggle to lift their daughter’s heavy chair in and out of a car, later wrestling her grandmother’s chair while caring for three small children, and eventually supporting her husband, Udell, after his Parkinson’s diagnosis in 2011.

By 2013, as the disease progressed, Udell could no longer walk long distances and needed a wheelchair. Susan, already familiar with the toll manual pushing takes, asked the mobility store a simple and reasonable question:

“Is there a lightweight powered chair I can operate from behind?”

Their response stunned her.
They laughed.
And then one of them added, “Caregivers don’t need that — you’re the motor.”

Instead of helping, they ordered a massive 350-pound power chair that Udell could not safely operate due to Parkinson’s tremors and limited hand control. He wrestled with the joystick, cursed in frustration when it failed to respond, and often crashed into walls. Each failed attempt eroded his confidence and deepened the emotional toll on both of them. He apologized constantly — hundreds of times a week — saying, “I’m sorry… I’m so sorry,” as Susan strained behind him, pushing his 265-pound frame with her 150-pound body.

Ramps became cliffs. Parking lots became hazards. Every outing carried fear.
A Rapidly Growing Wave of Industry Support

Then, in early 2017 — just a week before Udell passed away — his manual wheelchair slipped on a downhill grade. Susan lunged to stop it. She saved him.

But she tore her right rotator cuff in the process.

That moment captured the truth she had lived for decades but had never spoken aloud:

Caregivers face life-changing injuries every day simply because the tools they’re given were never designed for them.


“No one should be injured trying to care for someone they love.” — Susan P.

From Lived Experience to Innovation
The mobility industry had always focused on the rider. Powerchairs were designed for individual independence. Transport chairs were engineered for portability. But there was no solution that recognized the physical demands, emotional strain, and safety risks faced by the Caregiver behind the chair.

Susan envisioned something radically simple: a powered mobility device driven by Caregivers, not riders.
Her goal was not just to ease physical strain, but to restore dignity, confidence, and connection between Caregivers and their loved ones. She wanted families to walk together, not as a strained push-pull dynamic where one person wrestled physics while the other apologized for being a burden.

Working with expert engineers and advisors, Susan initiated the development of the first CareGlīder prototype, created specifically to protect Caregivers from downhill runaways, ramp strain, shoulder injuries, and unsafe manual maneuvers that millions perform every day.

Building a New Standard for Mobility Assistance

Over time — and through thousands of hours of refinement—the original idea matured into an innovation platform protected by a growing global intellectual property portfolio, including 2 issued U.S. patents and 5 international patents

CareGlīder’s design centers on:

• Differential-drive steering that allows intuitive, one-handed control from behind
• A lightweight, modular power unit that separates into two easy lifts
• Caregiver-first ergonomics designed to reduce injury risk and improve safety
• A compact footprint optimized for home, clinic, and community use
These design principles emerged directly from decades of lived Caregiver experience—an origin story that continues to shape each product iteration.