We worked with an elderly volunteer who had weak arm strength, arthritis in her hands, and trouble balancing. After getting to know her for a few weeks by talking to her and visiting her home, we found out some of the difficulties that she was having and began to work with her to solve these.
Once we saw that she could not pick up paper with her current grabber nor could she bend over to get it, we decided to work with her on this. After ideation, rigorous testing, and identification of her values, we came up with a solution using a modified tape roller. The grabber that we presented her with could simply be pressed onto the piece of paper that she wanted to pick up.
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We also saw that she was having some difficulties getting out of bed in the morning. After talking with her and having her test a variety of materials, we discovered that by covering her cane in rubber grips, she would be able to hook her grab bar and pull herself out of bed.
At the end of the class, we presented her with these two devices, and she was very pleased with them. |