Design for disability

[LouisTProductDesign]

Hi everyone!

I am a first year university student at Leeds studying product design and I am looking to design a product that will help make living with a disability easier.

Would anyone living with a disability or anyone that knows someone with a disability be able to tell me some of the day to day problems that are encountered (it can be as simple as opening a jar or as complex as driving a car)? Any help would be much appreciated, thank you! :D

[nukecad]

I'm sure that you can use your imagination to see what is needed.
That's a big part of product design, imagining for yourself a solution to a problem that no one else may have noticed is a problem.

To give you a good start take a look at the questions and answers in the 'Ask About Equipment Section' on this forum.

You'll find lots of problems and proposed solutions, from how to lift a wheelie bin lid if you are in a wheelchair, to how to open and pour a bottle of wine if you cant grip it properly.
http://www.youreable.com/forums/forumdisplay.php/11-Ask-about-equipment

If you can come up with a better solution than what's already on the market, or something new altogether, then you're on a winner.

[Lighttouch]

I think the way forward for small things that make5 a difference stem from 'customised design' via 3D-printing.

If a disabled person finds themselves in a darkened walkway perhaps a LED miniture torch attached to a crutch shaft might be the answer.

Perhaps a 3D-printed pliable plastic pill box you can keep in your trousers. Or a 3D-Printed coffee cup holder that can attach to a wheelchair frame.

Perhaps a 3D-printed rubberised grip you can slide onto an existing spoon to give a disabled person a better grip.

It could be that you design something as a digital template that disabled people can print off at home on a 3D-printer.
https://manchesterfablab.manufacturinginstitute.co.uk/manchester-fab-lab-home-page/commercial-use/3d-printing/