from Shopwiki:
The top part of the image is the search result box, showing an electric wheelchair priced at $2900. The bottom part of the image is the “Related Items” tab, which shows a choice of inexpensive dining-room chairs. (If you scroll down on the original page, you will also find stools and benches.)
From IRC:
[lauredhel] Oh, those wheelchair users, what hobbies do they – oh.
[lauredhel] But they like to SIT, right? How about CHAIRS?
[meloukhia] Can always use more CHAIRS!
Really, catalog makers?
Ha! That is amazing.
It’s probably just a search generator – it looked for similar items with the word chair in it.
See, I think you’re supposed to put the normal chairs on casters.
…
That’s how it works, right?
…
Right?
I strongly suspect it’s an automated thing based on word recognition; thus as “wheelchair” contains the string “chair”, other products containing the strong “chair” show up as “related items”. So, no thought went into it at all, basically…
shiva – So, no thought went into it at all, basically…
That’s what always happens though, isn’t it?
Of course, I think there was no malice or “they sit all the time!” at play. (And where are the couches? Don’t they also lay down? Tsk tsk tsk.)
I don’t know who’d search for a wheelchair and see the “related items” and go, yeah, I need a chair, too. Or maybe instead. Wheelchairs ain’t cheap, and does zie really need to be mobile? I think not! /silly
They can’t play to individuals in wheelchairs, because they’re all individuals. Do you think it would be better if the “related items” were other assistive devices?
Yeeees, we know about the word-matching algorithms for Related Items. We still found it funny.
I also think it’s auto-generated. It’d probably have been more helpful if it’s one of those “people who bought this also bought…” suggestions.
Of course it’s a computer-generated match of the tag “chair”. But it’s still very much in much the wrong category of “furniture”. They really ought to make a smarter algorithm.