Over the last few years, a crisis for wheelchair users has reached a tipping point.

Major delays, often several months long in getting their chairs repaired.

It can take even longer for those on waitlists to get a brand new one.

As Raven Santana reports, that suffering is the result of recent supply chain issues paired with a maze of bureaucratic red tape at insurance company.

Pedal box that I'm waiting on.

I just received an updated email that just right now saying that the part is still not available.

And we're in November.

It's been four months since Montclair resident Colleen Roche has had to fully working wheelchair.

Roche, who was born with cerebral palsy and is an active power chair user, depends on her chair as somewhat of a secondary skeleton.

She spends hours in it, and.

I have already traveled over 650 miles in it.

So.

So this isn't just a wheelchair that, oh, you sometimes this is really my body.

Despite her chair being just under a year old, a small repair could take longer to fix due to national supply chain issues that have been affecting wheelchair users.

For somebody like me, when I knew when I need a repair, the repair that was previously taking, I don't know, two months is now taking four months.

Not because the mobility and wheelchair supplier doesn't want to do the repair.

Not that the tech isn't able to do it, but simply there is there is not supply of basic materials to repair our chairs.

Roche who is the chair of the New Jersey statewide Independent Living Council, has been waiting on a knee block, a function that allows her to go from a seated to a standing position.

We're not just buying our medical supplies at the drugstore like you see a pulled up chair with a vinyl seat.

These chairs are specifically measured and made for our bodies specifically.

So this is a power chair.

It has various electronic functions that allow me to elevate, to recline, to tilt, to put my legs up, which allow me to maintain my not only my physical health, but allow me to fully participate in professional activities.

Roach says another challenge is that wheelchair users are required to keep chairs for five or six years, depending on coverage, meaning most won't see a new chair for years despite a part needing to be fixed on their current chair.

But I specifically am thinking about people who are waiting on their first chair.

Perhaps they're newly disabled or perhaps the disability has changed.

Her sentiments are echoed by Rutgers professor and chair of the New Jersey Disability Action Committee, Javier Robles.

Imagine yourself get ready to go to work and someone basically, you know, that's not graphic, but someone basically cuts your legs off, right?

Or, you know, all of a sudden you can't move and you have to stay in one place.

That's basically what it's like for myself and I'm sure many other people with disabilities.

The 56 year old who uses a $14,000 wheelchair recently shared his frustrations after he faced long delays for a motor to be fixed.

It's not just that, you know, if I don't have a wheelchair, I can't get to work or do everything.

It's like if I don't have a wheelchair, someone has to be available because I can't move anywhere.

Right?

So we're not just talking about one person.

We're talking about the loss of economic wages for more than one person.

Usually we're talking about the loss of job opportunities, in some instances, people getting fired.

I had to wait at 1.6 months for my chair.

Right.

And that was related to parts from China.

It was related to, you know, a bunch of other things supposedly, that the company said.

Both Roche and Robles say the ramifications of not having a properly repaired wheelchair extend far beyond just needing it fixed.

They now hope that New Jersey will begin to draft some type of legislation that includes routine wheelchair maintenance to expedite repairs.

For NJ Spotlight news I'm Raven Santana.