Whirlwind Wheelchair Website Upgraded

After three years, it's finally happening! And it's more like a total makeover. Welcome to the new Whirlwind web site. We're still putting up new content, but Whirlwind has finally joined the 21st Century in web design, thanks in large part to the help of, ilo, the design partnership of Karen Lee and Scott Andreae.

Whirlwind's first web site was a joint effort by self-taught web site builders Mirel Dobrila and Marc Krizack. Dobrila, a wheelchair rider and computer programmer at the United Nations in New York City, and Krizack, currently Whirlwind's director of operations, teamed up in 1999 to put together an eclectic and whimsical web site that captured Whirlwind's lighthearted style, but that lacked the consistency, artistry, and clear navigation that web denizens demand.

In 2002, San Francisco State University decided to no longer maintain the server hosting the Whirlwind site, although they left the server plugged into the Internet. For two years Whirlwind could not FTP to update the site. Whirlwind set up an alternate site, but Internet search engines were still referencing the original site. The old server was finally unplugged from the Internet in late August 2004. The new site is designed for ease of navigation and will carry a great deal of useful content for those interested in wheelchair design for people with disabilities in developing countries.

Scott Andreae and Karen Lee started, ilo, a small art and design studio in 1996. Since then ilo has created everything from web sites and print material to sculptures and interior spaces. ilo's work was selected for the 2004 Print Design Annual, and can be found in the new design book, Rethink, Redesign, Reconstruct by Mark Wasserman. In 2000, ilo was short listed for UNESCO's young designers award with their work becoming part of the UNESCO's permanent collection.

Visit Whirlwind's new site at www.whirlwindwheelchair.org

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