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Whirlwind Wheelchair International was born from one broken wheelchair. Ralf Hotchkiss, Whirlwind's Chief Engineer, was 18 years old when he rolled out of his rehabilitation hospital after a severe motorcycle accident. Just half a block from the hospital, his wheelchair broke and he fixed it himself. Soon, Ralf was busy strengthening his wheelchair and even building one of the first stair climbing models. An avid traveler, Ralf visited Nicaragua and in 1980 began working with local wheelchair riders to develop rugged repairable wheelchairs. Inspired by Nicaragua, Ralf went to the mountains of Mexico to set up a new shop where wheelchair riders did the building. Based on Whirlwind's value of local economic development, these shops were the first of over 40 that have been established in Latin America, Africa, and South East Asia. After nine years of pioneering work in rehabilitation engineering, in 1989 Ralf was awarded a MacArthur Foundation Grant, nicknamed the “Genius Award”.

Today, Whirlwind has grown into a sophisticated social business with a proven capability to produce award-winning wheelchairs and offer them at 20% of the price of comparable U.S. wheelchairs. Under the leadership of Executive Director Marc Krizack, Whirlwind has dramatically increased production capacity with a global network of regional manufacturers. We are currently able to produce quality certified RoughRider wheelchairs from our factories in Vietnam, Mexico, South Africa, and Turkey. Marc has developed Whirlwind into a mature organization with wider distribution potential and recognitions like the 2004 Tech Award, the 2009 coverage on PBS Frontline/World, and a 5-year research grant by the U.S. Department of Education to study how assistive technology is best provided in resource-limited environments around the world.

Whirlwind’s headquarters is located on the San Francisco State University campus as part of the Institute for Civic and Community Engagement. However, Whirlwind has a global team of fifteen in research, product development, manufacturing, marketing, and distribution roles. We believe the best way to understand how to develop products for a specific group of people is to live among them. Together, Whirlwind’s five designers have lived over 15 years in the environments where our riders live. This direct experience with the developing world and its unique design requirements, along with design feedback from developing world riders, is critical to the RoughRider’s success.