Right to repair and adaptive equipment: the movement you should know

Right to repair is the principle that you should be able to fix a device you own, or have an independent shop fix it. Since November 2024 Canadian law allows getting around digital locks to repair equipment, but manufacturers are still not required to hand over the parts, tools and manuals.

Picture waiting six to eight weeks to get a flat tire fixed, except the tire is on the power wheelchair you use to get out of bed, and the only company allowed to fix it quoted hundreds of dollars and refused to install the cheaper part you found yourself. That is not a hypothetical. It is the kind of experience wheelchair users have reported to researchers and journalists studying a repair system built to keep the work, and the parts, in the manufacturer’s hands. The effort to change that has a name, right to repair, and it has reached the equipment people depend on to move through their days.

What “right to repair” actually means

Right to repair is the principle that when you own a device, you should be able to fix it, or have an independent shop fix it, without the manufacturer locking you out. The lockouts come in familiar forms: restricting the supply of parts and tools, withholding repair manuals, and increasingly using software. Digital locks can prevent anyone but the maker from diagnosing or completing a repair, even when the physical fix is simple.

You have probably heard the John Deere version of this story. Farmers found they could not repair their own tractors because the equipment ran on proprietary software that locked out independent repair, turning a field-side fix into a wait for an authorized technician. The wheelchair version is the same machine logic applied to a device that carries a human being, and the consequences are more immediate. A farmer with a locked tractor loses time. A person whose power wheelchair is down can be left without the means to get out of bed.

The wheelchair problem, specifically

The repair market for complex power wheelchairs is concentrated. In 2022 the U.S. PIRG Education Fund published a report called “Stranded,” based on a survey of 141 American wheelchair users. It found that more than half of respondents relied on just two national suppliers, Numotion and National Seating and Mobility, and that repairs routinely dragged on: nearly two-thirds of those surveyed said the average repair took four or more weeks, and about 40 per cent said seven or more. With the work funnelled through a small number of providers, people reported waiting weeks for simple fixes, delays that can leave someone stuck in bed or in an unsafe situation.

The specifics in the reporting are stark. According to PIRG and subsequent coverage by KFF Health News, some manufacturers used digital controls to lock out third parties and limited the supply of parts and tools, and one user was quoted six to eight weeks and several hundred dollars to replace wheelchair inner tubes, with the provider refusing to install cheaper parts bought elsewhere. For a device that is the difference between independence and being stranded at home, a multi-week repair queue is not a minor inconvenience. It is a loss of basic function created by how the repair business is arranged.

Where the law stands

In Canada, the federal picture moved on 7 November 2024, when Bills C-244 and C-294 received royal assent. Bill C-244 amended the Copyright Act to make it legal to get around digital locks, the technological protection measures that previously made it an offence to circumvent software to diagnose, maintain, or repair a device. Bill C-294 added an exception allowing circumvention for interoperability, making devices work together.

This is real progress, and it is also partial. The federal bills remove a copyright barrier; they do not, on their own, force a manufacturer to sell you the parts, tools, and manuals you need. There are limits too: a repairer can circumvent a lock to do a repair, but using a dedicated circumvention specialist or specialized circumvention equipment remains restricted. The right to bypass the lock is not yet a full right to fix.

The mandatory-disclosure piece, requiring manufacturers to actually hand over repair materials, has been moving at the provincial level. Ontario’s Bill 187, which passed first reading in April 2024, proposed amending consumer-protection law to require manufacturers to supply repair manuals, replacement parts, software, and tools for products including wheelchairs. Provincial bills like this are where wheelchair-specific obligations are most likely to land, so the law worth watching is as much provincial as federal.

South of the border, Colorado moved first and furthest. It passed the first United States right-to-repair law aimed at powered wheelchairs in 2022, effective at the start of 2023, letting users take their chairs to independent shops and guaranteeing access to parts, tools, and software at a reasonable price. Colorado extended the right to agricultural equipment in 2023 and to digital equipment in 2024, the latter barring manufacturers from using parts pairing that reduces functionality or throws misleading alerts about third-party parts. Reporting since then, including KFF Health News, has been honest about the limits: even with a strong law on the books, fixing wheelchairs is not yet easy, because the supply chains and habits built up over years do not change overnight. The law is necessary. On its own it is not sufficient.

What this means for you

• Know that the legal ground has shifted in Canada. Since November 2024, getting around a digital lock to repair your own equipment is no longer a copyright violation. That changes what an independent technician is allowed to do.
• Ask about parts and repair access before you buy expensive equipment. When choosing a power wheelchair or other costly device, ask the supplier directly whether independent repair is possible, how parts are obtained, and what the typical repair wait is. The answers vary, and they matter.
• Watch your provincial legislation, not just the federal bills. The requirement that manufacturers hand over manuals, parts, and tools is being decided at the provincial level. That is where wheelchair-specific protections are most likely to appear.
• Document repair delays. Long waits and refusals to install third-party parts are exactly the evidence advocates and legislators have drawn on. A record of what happened to you is useful.
• Follow the advocacy. Right to repair for mobility equipment has advanced because users and organizations kept documenting what the old system cost real people. It is a live policy area, and the disability community has been at the centre of it.

This is one of those issues that sounds technical and is really about something basic: whether the device you depend on to live your life is yours to keep working, or the manufacturer’s to ration. The barrier was never the broken part. It was a set of business and software choices that put a wall between people and their own equipment. That wall is coming down lock by lock and bill by bill, and in Canada, as of late 2024, it is lower than it was. If you use equipment like this, the practical move now is simple: ask the repair questions before you buy, keep records when things go wrong, and watch your province’s bill.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Bill C-244 royal assent, Parliament of Canada
• Bill C-244: unlocking the right to repair, Lavery
• Bill 187, Right to Repair Act, 2024, Legislative Assembly of Ontario
• HB22-1031 Consumer Right to Repair Powered Wheelchairs, Colorado General Assembly
• Colorado expands right-to-repair law, Proskauer
• Stranded, U.S. PIRG Education Fund
• Despite a right-to-repair law, there’s no easy fix for wheelchair users, KFF Health News