Flying an FPV Drone for the first time is a thrilling experience. For a LIPO Battery lifetime, you mentally leave your body to to fly in the air through bird eyes.
The Digital Agency Kindai teamed up with LADAPT, a French association for social and professional involvement of people with disabilities, to create a skybreaking support program for people with disabilities: HandiDrone!
The aim? Allowing people with reduced mobility and disabilities to rediscover semi-forgotten sensations through FPV and also to discover an emerging job: Drone Pilot.
After months of teamwork between Kindai, LADAPT and two major french FPV flying teams (Blaireaux Air Model and Airgonay), the project finally took place in one of the most beautiful areas of France: the Haute-Savoie Mountains.
During the first session of this new generation support program, a dozen participants have been able to experience the excitement of FPV flying. People with a different background but with a similar struggle: living with reduced mobility.
As expected by anyone familiar with FPV flying, their feedback was emotionally exiting: “We find absolute peace and tranquility outside the body, and thats a wonderful thing” says Sylvie, a woman suffering from degenerative disease and supported by LADAPT.
Beyond the fun and the sensations provided through the experience, HandiDrone is an amazing way to give hope, and introduce people with reduced mobility to an emerging field compatible with their disability.
“We spend more time working than any other activity. This is an amazing opportunity for people with disabilities. Drones are about to become mainstream in many fields such as construction, farming, security…” says Aurélien Fouache, CEO of Kindai Agency.
Inspired by the work of Stuart Turner, a quadriplegic British AI specialist who has modified a quadrocopter to fly with eye movements and an index finger, LADAPT and Kindai are willing to launch a call for makers this year to technically improve the HandiDrone support program.
Around 10 per cent of the world’s population, or roughly 650 million people, live with a disability. There is no such thing as an out of the box Drone for disabled people. The challenge is to design low budget DIY Drone Mods for people with reduced mobility to fly anywhere in the world.
For Thierry Delerce, regional director of LADAPT, “This is a unique adventure for those who participate and an innovative way to counter prejudices associated with disabilities.”
The association is currently working hard to find more partners and make this support program bigger, accessible and understandable by a wider number of people.
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