Enabled by Design

Registration for Naidex National 2012 now open

denise — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 21:35:50 +0000

Naidex National is the UK’s largest disability, homecare and rehabilitation event held each year at the NEC, Birmingham.

This year’s event will be on:

1 – 3 May 2012

Naidex National enables you to:

- Source the latest products and services from over 350 leading exhibitors

- See the latest innovations to the market

- Get expert independent advice and gain new ideas

- Test the latest products and adaptations in a domestic environment

Free registration is now open, so get your tickets here:

http://www.exporeg.co.uk/visit/sites/emap/naidex/N12/vis/login.asp

Suggestions needed for a mobile working set up with RSI and a bad back

Lucy W — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:36:36 +0000

Hi all

I have RSI in my right hand and also a bad back that seems to be the result of carrying a heavy laptop around. The back problem now is such that even a lighter 1.3kg MacBook Air is a bit too heavy – I think 1kg would be the limit -but the problem with laptops that light is that the ergonomics of sitting with a small screen aren’t good and don’t help my back. There is a locker at work where I would be prepared to leave a cheap laptop (not my MacBook Pro 13″ – which is staying at home for now) – but just wondering if anyone else had any suggestions. Thanks!

Benefits Camp – read all about it!

denise — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 12:09:39 +0000

Ideas on from the day and useful links: http://wearefuturegov.com/events/benefits-camp

What: Benefits Camp

When: 9 am to 5 pm on Friday 3rd February 2012

Where: TBC

Hashtag: #benefitscamp

Who Attended: http://benefitscamp.eventbrite.com

You are invited to Benefits Camp, so book your place here!

Change is happening in the way that benefits are being assessed and allocated, with recent discussions around benefits for people with disabilities and long-term health conditions, job seekers and families, amongst others.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of the situation, this is going to be a bumpy ride for many who are affected by it. Time for us to get our heads together and think up some ways to plug the gap. And quick.

This event is for anyone up for helping fix/hack/change and otherwise improve the benefits system.

We need some good ideas for:

making the current system better so people can get the most out of it
making other things better so we keep the current system but have stuff like resource-sharing tools to complement it
ways of totally disrupting the benefits system so people no longer need the state’s money

We need you if you are:

someone with a good idea
someone who knows about economics
someone who knows about the benefits system
someone affected by the changes
someone with passion and enthusiasm for change
a developer
a designer
a facilitator

Or indeed all of the above!

We’re working on it…

You will see that we don’t yet have a venue for this event. We’re working on it and can tell you it will be in central London. Accessibility is extremely important to us, so please do let us know about any requirements you might have or if you have any questions.

We’re also keen to open up the event to those unable to attend in person, so we’re exploring ways for people to get involved online. We’ll keep you posted on any developments and send you an email before the event telling you exactly where to come.

We’re hoping to find someone willing to help out with refreshments, including lunch.

We’re also hoping to put together a prize for the best ideas coming out of the day. Ideally this would be in the form of a small seed grant and some support for developing the ideas after the day.

Can you help?

If you can help us with any of the above – venue, catering, the prize fund, or anything else you think would make the day amazing then please do get in touch with dom [at] wearefuturegov.com | carrie [at] wearefuturegov.com | denise [at] enabledbydesign.org

Want to attend?

Tickets are available on Eventbrite here: http://benefitscamp.eventbrite.com/

With

All Zipped Up – easy to use duvet cover

denise — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:07:34 +0000

I recently spotted a tweet (shown below) referring to a ‘Love’ I’d posted on the old version of the Enabled by Design website back in 2010, which prompted me to dig it out from our archives. So here goes…

Originally posted: 26 August 2010

I’ve been meaning to add this ingenious ‘Love’ ever since I saw it being demonstrated and was wowed at Naidex earlier this year.

All Zipped Up is a duvet cover with a difference, which I am certain will make the bed making battle I’ve often experienced a thing of the past! Rather than having a single sided zip at one end, the duvet cover has a continuous zip along three of the sides, allowing you to open up the cover completely, place the duvet flat inside and zip it up again. And hey presto, it’s done without the all too familiar fisticuffs.

There’s even a detachable zip pull (see below) available for those of us who find small zips fiddly. Yay!

It’s often a simple, well executed idea like this that leaves you thinking why didn’t I think of that?!? But I’m so glad that you did, well done All Zipped Up! : )

Designs of the Year 2012 nomination: Carbon Black Wheelchair

denise — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 12:51:36 +0000

It’s great to see the Carbon Black Wheelchair (previously featured on the Enabled by Design website here) being nominated for the product category of the Designs of the Year 2012 awards. A very big well done to husband and wife team, Andrew and Mary Slorance!

All of the nominations will be on show at the Designs of the Year exhibtion at the Design Museum, London, opening on 8 February 2012. Category winners and the overall winner will be announced at an Awards Night at the Design Museum on 24 April 2012.

We look forward to seeing how they get on, so watch this space for further news…

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year!!!

denise — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 10:54:39 +0000

It’s hard to believe that 2012 is finally here! It certainly feels like it’s been a long time coming, and so much has happened since it was announced that the 2012 Olympics (205 days to go) and Paralympics (238 days to go) would be held in London. But here we are today and so close too…

We’re extremely excited about what this new year holds in store for us and we look forward to sharing it with you. After all, we really wouldn’t be here without each and every one of the Enabled by Design community, so thank you very much for your continued involvement and support, we really do appreciate it!

Not a great one for making New Year’s resolutions and (ahem!) keeping them : S (my last year’s attempt to give up chocolate lasted all of five days), I’ve decided to try and do my very best at keeping one for Enabled by Design. Here goes:

Having spent the last couple of years feeling guilty for not blogging nearly enough or worse still having things to blog about but never quite getting round to doing it, my resolution this year will be to keep the Enabled by Design blog ship shape and regularly updated.

You read it here, so to kick things off I feel another Big Blog Backlog coming on for the next couple of weeks, just to get back in the swing of things, then it’s full steam ahead with 2012…

We look forward to keeping in touch and hope that you all have a happy, fun-filled and awesome new year!!!

Team EbD x

PS.

In case you’re new to Enabled by Design, or even if you’ve been an EbD-er for quite some time, you can also find out about what we’ve been up to and what we’re interested in on Twitter and Facebook here:

Talking Tin Lids

trabasackdad — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 16:11:29 +0000

Spotted these as one of the disabilitygadgets posts. A lid with a ‘memo’ button to record a message about the contents of a food container, bottle or tin. Looks handy for identifying objects for people with a visual impairment. Good for best before dates, although that is not so relevant for cans. A better idea would be for manufacturers to ‘indent’ some sort of braille or textured code maybe?

New York Times article on Apple’s AssistiveTouch

Dominic Campbell — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 16:57:41 +0000

“iPhone was already pretty good at helping out if you’re blind or deaf. But until iOS 5 came along, it was tough rocks if you had motor-control problems.” Read more…

Hymid R & D

Richard Child — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 16:30:20 +0000

Hello,

My name is Richard Child, and in August of this year I co-founded Hymid R & D, a company that designs and develops Independent Living products and services, with the aim of bringing them to market. My background is design, and I want to create beautiful products/services that are functional and easy to use.

Our goal as a company is to build strong relationships with communities. We understand that end users and industry professionals are aware of the problems within Independent Living, and in a lot of cases have developed a solution. If you have an idea that you think has merit, please get in touch.

Hymid R & D are currently working on a product to assist the use of crutches. If you have ever used crutches, could you please spare a few minutes to fill out our survey, and let us know your thoughts: bit.ly/designofcrutches

Stay in touch:

Email: richard@hymidrandd.co.uk

Twitter: @hymidrandd

Facebook: /hymidrandd

www.hymidrandd.co.uk

Thank you for taking the time to read this

Richard

Dexterity Aid

oli.milvo — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 22:06:13 +0000

Hi -

I’m an Industrial Design student in my second year at Northumbria Uni. I am currently designing an aid to help people who have limited dexterity grip small objects. After some research and development I have come up with this initial design which is based around pliers, but with a comfortable, large grip and a long handle to provide leverage – thus reducing the amount of force needed to apply grip.

This is just an initial idea and it would be great to open the floor to any ideas – how could this be improved? Are there any bad points that you can see? Ect.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks – Oliver