I was inspired to write this after reading Paul Graham’s post, WHAT TO DO.
I want to build a mobility aid. I don’t know how yet, and I don’t have all the answers. But I do know my goal: I want to help people.
I sometimes ask myself: how did I even land on making a mobility aid? It’s true that a lot of people who use them have disabilities — and that’s not me. I still want to build one. A better one. One that empowers people. One that makes people feel included.
I grew up surrounded by my grandparents. As they got older, my grandmother began using a walker to move around the house. My grandfather had a cane to go meet his friends. These aids helped — but only up to a point.
We lived on the third floor of a building with no lift. My grandmother, who loved being outside, slowly stopped leaving the house. Climbing stairs left her exhausted. She relied on others for nearly everything: meals, medication, even getting from her bed to a chair.
Two people would lift her into a wheelchair and help her down the stairs. Definitely not the ideal or most efficient approach — but at that time, it’s what worked. She spent the last few years of her life mostly at home, and needed help for almost everything: to get to her chair, to eat, to take medicine.
I was 18 when she passed away. That never left me.
Later on, I joined a university program in Singapore. One of our projects was to build something useful for a community. My team made a prototype for visually impaired users. It wasn’t groundbreaking — but it worked well.
After two years of studying in India, I moved to the U.S. to finish my degree. Like most people, I spent my first semester adjusting and figuring things out. Eventually, I started doing research in distributed systems, network packet filtering, and security. I enjoyed it, and learned a lot. But I kept wondering: how do I use this research to help people?
So I started reaching out to professors. I wanted to work on something related to disability and assistive tech. Two professors — one in Mechanical Engineering, one in Computer Science — agreed to meet with me about building better technology for people with disabilities. We decided to talk more after break.
Around that time, another professor heard about the idea and wanted to join. He shared that he had suffered a stroke in 2011 and was hemiplegic. He used a wheelchair, and occasionally a cane. But he said he avoided the cane because he was scared he might bump into someone.
I didn’t fully understand what hemiplegia meant, or even the full impact of a stroke.
But listening to his story reminded me why I wanted to do this in the first place — because I want to build something that improves someone’s everyday life.
That year, I started interviewing stroke survivors. Even though strokes affect so many people, it was surprisingly hard to find users to talk to. The few I did speak to had powerful stories.
I gave small talks to stroke support groups and asked them what they wanted. Those conversations were the most fulfilling part of my work. They reminded me why it mattered. It made everything feel worth it.
I applied to PhD programs because I wanted to go deeper into human-computer interaction — to learn more, and to build better, human-centered technologies.
I didn’t get in.
That was disappointing, for sure.
But now I think maybe it didn’t work out for a reason. Maybe I just needed to go out there, talk to people, and keep building.
Since then, I’ve done a lot of research into this space — mobility aids, disability, health challenges like stroke and quadriplegia. I’ve become part of a larger community, and now I want to give back.
My plan is to build on these ideas. I want to make the best mobility aid out there — something that makes daily life easier and social interactions better for people.
And for my grandmother.