Press Release – Many of the 600,000 Chicagoans living with disabilities require medical equipment like wheelchairs but lack insurance or resources to cover the high costs, which greatly affects their ability to live independently or have a decent quality of life. Until a few years ago, their only option was to search a few sparsely equipped lending lockers sporadically located in church basements throughout the city. But that has changed thanks to Devices 4 the Disabled (D4D), a growing Chicago nonprofit that provides free durable, refurbished medical equipment to those in need, helping them overcome barriers and get their lives back.
D4D opens the doors of its warehouse every Wednesday and starts matching people with items such as power wheelchairs, manual wheelchairs, walkers with seats, patient lifts, shower chairs, hospital beds and canes. Those who show up on Wednesdays wait in a line that sometimes stretches down the street. But they say it’s well worth it. “My new wheelchair mea…