Slashdot linked up this NY Times article that details an innovative new use for the Segway scooter:

Several hundred people nationwide are using Segways to cope with disabilities like scoliosis and arthritis and even missing limbs, according to a group called Disability Rights Advocates for Technology, or Draft, which is promoting such use.

My mom is only slightly better balanced than my daughter (who recently wobbled over into the grass as she tried to track a helicopter as it went by), so this thing would at first seem just a really expensive way to fall over. But:

For some, the Segway is more comfortable than a wheelchair, and it helps those with balance problems stay upright.

"It's just this incredible feeling for those that cannot balance and when they stand up they feel like they're in the midst of falling all the time," said Jerry Kerr of St. Louis, a Segway rider with a spinal cord injury that left him unable to walk, though he can stand to operate the scooter.

Thankfully, Segway's sudden popularity with the disabled is not because of a tax loophole... since it's not classified as a medical device, insurance and medicaid/medicare won't cover it. For now, anyway.

But hey, if it helps you get around and you're paying for it out of your own pocket, more power to you!