Roomba Manufacturer iRobot Declares Bankruptcy

Earlier this month, John Keilman reported for The Wall Street Journal Roomba maker iRobot filed for bankruptcy. Despite the bad news, however, the company emphasizes “its devices will continue to function normally while the company restructures.”

“Massachusetts-based iRobot has struggled financially for years, beset by foreign competition that made cheaper and, in the opinion of some buyers, technologically superior autonomous vacuums,” Keilman wrote. “When a proposed sale to Amazon.com fell through in 2024 because of regulatory concerns, the company’s share price plummeted.”

iRobot was founded in 1990.

Although I’ve never used a Roomba—nor any other robot vacuum—it’s nonetheless easy for me to see how the things could be useful in an accessibility context. To wit, household chores like cleaning isn’t easy for many people with disabilities, myself included, and vacuuming could be untenable for a variety of reasons. Maybe you can’t hold and push the vacuum. Maybe you can’t see dirty spots. Maybe you can’t empty the bag/bin. Whatever the case, to invest in something like a Roomba is neither indulgent nor living luxuriously; on the contrary, it’s downright practical. The ability to use one’s phone to control it, not to mention have it return to its dock to relieve itself and recharge, can make vacuuming one’s floors an eminently more accessible task. The tech media at large has a penchant for ascribing frivolity and luxury to robotics, and while there is a kernel of truth to that argument, what the able-bodied masses (predictably) gloss over are the people who might truly benefit from, say, a robot vacuum for accessibility’s sake. Again, a Roomba isn’t exactly an inexpensive device, depending on the model, but the investment can be worth it to someone who is unable to manually vacuum yet wishes to retain some agency and autonomy in the process. That in itself is absolutely a goal worth striving for in this case, clean floors be damned.