EXCELLENT WOMEN

Designing wheels with something to say

IZZY KEANE has been a wheelchair user all her life – she was born with spina bifida and is paralysed from the waist down. As a little girl she found it frustrating that it was her wheelchair, rather than her bright and bubbly personality, that people noticed about her first.

Her older sister Ailbhe used to decorate her wheels for special occasions. At Christmas she’d thread ribbons and flowers through the spokes and fill them with lights. People always complimented Izzy on her wheels and it gave her a lot of positive attention. So when Ailbhe went to university to study art, she decided in her final year to create a range of wheel covers for Izzy that matched her sister’s outfits.

She shared them on social media and they went viral – one video was viewed three million times and Ailbhe started to get messages from wheelchair users from all over the world wanting to know where they could get their own IzzyWheels.

The wheel trims are always super colourful and feature bold patterns so they can be an expression of the person using them, and a talking point.

Other designers loved them, too – in the early days, they collaborated with eight designers for the Irish Wheelchair Association as a fundraiser to put on the ‘Roll Models’ fashion show, and since then they’ve worked with Barbie, Hello Kitty, and Orla Kiely to name but a few.

“Wheelchairs are incredible devices which give people with physical impairments freedom,” says Ailbhe. “They should be celebrated. It’s why our motto is: ‘If you can’t stand up, stand out.’ Izzy’s wheelchair is a symbol of her ability, and the wheel covers are helping to break down stigmas.” Find out more at: izzywheels.com.