Spend a week or a decade in a wheelchair, chances are you’ll be asked some pretty crazy things. And I get why–people are uncomfortable around things that are different, especially wheelchairs. (Even more so if they don’t know anyone who uses a wheelchair on a personal level).

Before assistive technology such as wheelchair lifts and other van conversions became widely used, somebody first needed to pioneer the idea. The same holds true with assistive technology that continues to advance and evolve. A lightweight ekoskeleton, also termed wearable robot or Indego exemplifies one new promising technology. Indego empowers people with spinal cord injuries to stand up and walk. Recently The Mobility Resource chatted with Vanderbilt University mechanical engineering and physical medicine/rehabilitation professor Michael Goldfarb, the man who initially envisioned Indego.