Brite is incredibly excited to have our Brike picked up by the Sunbury and Macedon Ranges Specialist School. This specialist school caters for students with intellectual and physical disabilities, and our Brike will allow more of their cohort the opportunity to participate in their Bike Education program. We couldn’t be more proud to see our industry leading e-tricycle that has been specifically designed for people with disability used by another organisation to improve inclusiveness, activity, and independence.
About Sunbury and Macedon Ranges Specialist School
Sunbury and Macedon Ranges Specialist School teaches specialised curriculum for individual learners to help achieve the intellectual, social, and physical potential of their students across the City of Hume. With a motto of “Consistency, Credibility, Continuity”, Sunbury Specialist School offers special education to guide students all the way from pre-school through to post-school life.
Sunbury Specialist School offers a range of programs designed to help with the education, development, and wellbeing of their individual learners. These programs include everything from art to horticulture, horse riding to a school wide positive behaviour support.
One of their programs is Bike Education, structured to teach important lessons and promote physical and mental fitness through learning to ride a bicycle. Unfortunately, their students with major physical disabilities could not participate in this program, leading the school to search for alternative solutions. This was when they came across the Brike, and we were more than happy to present them with the solution they had been looking for.
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The Brike
The Brike was made in partnership with RMIT, NORTH Link, and Toyota, by people with disability for people with disability. The purpose of the Brike was to create a range of e-bikes that could be used by people with disability and their families. Brite was awarded a $300k grant from NDIA’s Information Linkages and Capacity Building (ILC) initiative, which gave our team the funds to begin work on the first prototype.
This first prototype – the wheelchair Brike – was made at Brite as part of our advanced technologies initiative. Under the mentorship of Toyota, our team was able to develop important design and building skills and work together to overcome complex challenges to guarantee a product we could all be proud of. Having a complex process made understandable and accessible to our supported team members allowed them to create an innovative mode of transport that makes mobility more accessible for more people.
The wheelchair Brike is an innovative piece of exercise equipment that can be used simultaneously by a person with a disability and a family member, friend, or loved one. It was this model that we presented to Sunbury and Macedon Ranges Specialist School in September, 2022.
The Results
Sunbury and Macedon Ranges Specialist School now has the capacity to include more of their students within their exciting and developmental Bike Education program. The Brike will also allow their students with physical disabilities to ride around to their heart’s content.
Contact Brite
With the Brike now in the hands of a local specialist school, we can’t help but feel like this is only the beginning. To make use of Brite’s transformative services and products – including the Brike – contact our friendly team today.
