Ralph Braun

Wheelchair-accessible vehicles. Braun, who had spinal muscular atrophy and used a wheelchair from childhood, built himself a motorised scooter in the 1960s in Indiana and then a lift to get his wheelchair into a van. Other disabled drivers asked for the same, and his company, now BraunAbility, grew into a leading maker of wheelchair lifts and converted vans. He designed from his own needs. He died in 2013.