Broadened Horizons - Live Your Life!    |     home   
Contact Us   |   Testimonials   |   Funding   |   Resources   |   News   |   Support   |   Our Customers   |   About Us
Products

About Us

We look forward to working with you!  Please Contact Us and let us know how we are doing and how we can help you or your loved ones live life more completely and independently!

Who We Serve

Broadened Horizons' clients often utilize power wheelchairs while struggling to use tools with buttons, levers, knobs, and handles in a world designed around manual dexterity.  Opportunities for travel, communications, recreation, education, and employment are severely limited due to the additional complexity of meeting their needs.  Those limited by quadriplegia or tetraplegia, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, and Lou Gehrig's disease or ALS find our solutions ideally suited to their needs.  However our solutions can also greatly simplify the lives of those with less limitations also; such as paraplegics, those who have suffered a stroke, brain injury, spina bifida, or other disabling disease or injury.  

Our Products
Broadened Horizons develops and delivers unique, innovative solutions empowering those with upper extremity physical mobility limitations with tools to break down barriers and lead fulfilling lives as equals within society. Our solutions not only enrich the lives of those directly served, but through them, the lives of their families, friends, and communities.  

Broadened Horizons' solutions take two forms: developing new, universally functional versions of existing products, and developing solutions to expand the functional usefulness of existing products to more people.  Within this context, we focus on products that enhance personal independence through access to communications, transportation, education, employment, and recreation.  We believe these areas have the greatest potential impact to enhance quality of life by reducing both the real and perceived limitations of those we serve; or in other words, broadening their horizons.

Our Philosophy

Disability Is Only Differential Ability!  We humans have an immeasurable ability to compensate and adapt.  The lack of any ability focuses and refines the development of other abilities.  By the structure of the word, dis-ability is the lack of an ability expected of the "standard" individual.  Since necessity is the mother of invention, all of society's developments and innovations throughout history are based upon the expectation of a certain baseline level of ability.  When an individual lacks one or more abilities from this standard baseline, they are greatly disadvantaged simply because they are unable to take advantage of all of society's innovations from housing to transportation to communications to entertainment.  

By simply rethinking where that baseline is drawn and applying the concepts of universal design to all aspects of life, not only does society become purposefully inclusive, but it has been demonstrated that an exponentially greater portion of the population benefits than was ever initially expected or anticipated.  Curb cuts were originally proposed to benefit those with mobility impairments and initially thought by many not to be worth the additional effort to benefit such a small population.  However, it was soon discovered that curb cuts made the investment in sidewalks more useful for everyone from bikers and skateboarders to mothers with baby strollers to workers unloading cargo.  This has led to their even greater use and inclusion in many more locations than simply on street corners.  Yet many public building entrances and interiors still feature a single steps when a short ramp has been demonstrated far more useful for everyone.

Who We Are

Mark Felling (EE, MBA), Broadened Horizons' President
 Mark began designing and inventing solutions both for himself and others soon after his plane crash in 2003 using his engineering background and experience teaching testing and quality to development groups at high-tech companies around the world.  Guided by an intimate understanding of the unique needs of wheelchair users with upper extremity limitations as a C5 Quadriplegic himself, Mark created Broadened Horizons to introduce solutions focusing on innovative simplicity to maximize cost efficiency, compatibility, reliability, and ease of use.
 
The Sky Chairiot Project - The world's first truly wheelchair accessible airplane conceptually designed by Mark during the first two weeks of consciousness lying in the hospital with the goal of being the world's first quadriplegic to fly independently cross-country as pilot in command!

January 15, 08: Mark Felling, President of Broadened Horizons was elected Chairman of the Minnesota Governor's Advisory Council on Technology for People with Disabilities.

October 25th, 07: Tim Pawlenty, Minnesota State Governor, appointed Mark Felling, President of Broadened Horizons, to the Governors Advisory Council On Technology for People with Disabilities for a 2 year term. [Appointment & Press Release PDF]  The Governors Advisory Council on Technology for People with Disabilities administers the Minnesota System of Technology to Achieve Results (STAR) program.  The STAR Program is federally funded by the Rehabilitation Services Administration in accordance with the Assistive Technology Act of 1998.  Council consists of 16 members including 11 public members appointed by the governor and five members of designated state agencies.   Disability Minnesota - Gateway for Disability Information in Minnesota

Mark's LinkedIn Professional Recommendations
Recommendations listed by position in chronological order, most recent at the top.
President at Broadened Horizons, Inc.

"Mark was the guest speaker at UCP’s annual meeting last fall. He showed us several of the assistive technology products he’d been developing, and later advised the purchase of several devices to add to UCP’s demo and loan library. Those items have been used extensively by the community, and therefore I conclude that the recommendations he gave me were very intuitive.

Mark always takes the time to follow up either by phoning after a transaction is complete to be sure setup was as easy as promised or, on occasion, stops into the office to help with setup and inform me of new technology that will soon be available. His good advice and excellent follow-through exceed the normal scope of customer service."

William L. Bussear - Accessible Tourism
"I am very happy that I met Mark Felling! He is a wonderful example of someone who is waging a furious and courageous fight against quadriplegia! His enthusiasm is contagious and the products he offers the handicap community is impressive and extremely utilitarian! I personally purchased one of his Comfort Carriers and it is an exemplary product. It makes getting on and getting off a passenger aircraft much safer and much easier on everyone involved!  I hope to meet him and personally share ideas with him in March of 2008!"

Michelle Hinn - hired Mark as a IT Consultant in 2007
“I just started working with Mark on a game industry project for gamers with disabilities and was quick to provide so many alternative solutions that I didn't know about. I will recommend him to my colleagues in the video gaming industry without a doubt. In just a short phone call we had the project mapped out, which went way beyond my expectations and is far and above any customer service I've received from any other company!” February 15, 2007
Top qualities: Personable, Expert, Creative
Sales Engineer / Customer Service / Sales Development at TestQuest, Inc.
June 2000-July 2003

Stan Tasker, Senior Sales Manager, TestQuest, Inc.
worked directly with Mark at TestQuest, Inc.
“Advanced problem solving skills, coupled with entrepreneurial spirit, were instrumental in Mark's success as a Solutions Engineer at TestQuest. Mark understands the value of listening to a customer to determine their true set of requirements, and he has the technical acumen to then respond and deliver against those requirements. There were numerous sales opportunities on which we worked together, where I can say with 100% conviction, that we would not have made the sale if Mark was not there to save the day.” December 14, 2007

Chuck Martel, VP, Professional Services, TestQuest, Inc.
managed Mark indirectly at TestQuest, Inc.
“Mark consistently demonstrated a great blend of technical skill, creativity and customer focus. His enthusiasm to solve customer needs fueled all his interactions -- both internally and externally.” December 12, 2007

Lynn Gregory, Sr. Mechanical / Manufacturing Engineer, TestQuest
worked with Mark at TestQuest, Inc.
“Mark is a great resource to have on your team. His is an innovative thinker who is flexible yet focused. His dedication and “can-do” attitude gave him the ability to solve difficult complex problems. Mark’s upbeat personality always made him a joy to work with.” December 11, 2007

Ed Grinvalds, Technical Support Engineering Manager, TestQuest, Inc.
managed Mark at TestQuest, Inc.
“As a Technical Support Engineer, Mark resolved complex customer technical issues. Mark also was given the opportunity to develop a product extension. This extension was to allow testing of multiple Digital Entertainment customer systems. It involved sw programming to integrate new hw. The product was completed on-time and within budget and is still successfully sold to customers today.” February 19, 2006

Mike Huang, Project Manager, TestQuest
worked directly with Mark at TestQuest, Inc.
“Mark is an exceptionally creative problem-solver who is driven to find the best solution for a problem. His fearless approach yields unique solutions to problems which may have been dismissed by others as impossible or impractical.” February 7, 2006

Neil Bedekar, Solutions Consultant Asia Pacific, TestQuest
worked directly with Mark at TestQuest, Inc.
“Mark's innovation and problem solving skills have helped a global profile of customers achieve their difficult automated testing goals.” February 6, 2006

Marshal H. Perlman, Product Manager, TestQuest
worked with Mark at TestQuest, Inc.
“Mark was one of the company’s primary problem solvers and served the company well in his various roles. He is well organized, goal oriented, and has the ability to interface with technical and management personnel. He repeatedly demonstrated that he understood the company’s atypical business model and did his best to help management meet their idealistic sales goals.” February 4, 2006


Becky Hawfitch, Order Fulfillment
Becky assists with processing orders, packaging, and shipping.  She has struggled with Fibromyalgia since the age of 8 and has learned to overcome some memory limitations from a brain injury due to a car accident.

Michael Thompkins, Master Technician
With over 25 years experience with a variety of high-tech companies, Mike brings valuable skills to help us create top-quality results!

Benjamin Peltier, Assembly Technician

Rosalie Peltier, Assembly & General Assistance


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           
© Broadened Horizons, Inc., 2007. All rights reserved.
Designated trademarks and brands are the property of their respective owners.