8 cool everyday items, originally invented for people with disabilities.

8 cool everyday items,
originally invented for people with disabilities.

We live in a world largely created by people who can see, hear, walk and talk; for people who can see, hear, walk and talk - with little or no difficulty. However we should finally open our eyes and notice that at the same time we live in a world where, according to the World Bank, as many as 1,000,000,000 people suffer from some form of disability.

Yes, a billion people.

One can reflect on this, and try to imagine how often and how many special adaptations of everyday objects these people need in order to prosper in the world. Then you can read the article below and... start designing!

We are inspired by examples of products and product adaptations that, although invented for people with disabilities, are today widely used and enjoyed by people of all abilities. In fact, they cannot even imagine life without them (neither can we).

Today, at least for residents of large cities, sloping kerbs - one of the items on our list below - seem to be increasingly a matter of course. However, there are millions of places on earth where such an obviousness still does not exist. Let's notice, let's react, let's change it in our street, neighbourhood or work environment. Every change is for good.

Here is a list of 8 everyday items:

• Typewriters and keyboards
• Electric toothbrushes
• Good OXO holders and similar kitchen tools
• Speech-to-text and voice recognition applications
• Fidget spinners
• Sloping kerbs
• Audio books
• Bendy straws (admittedly, this is where the eco aspect comes in, but it counts too)

Typewriters and keyboards

Nowadays everyone has (at least) one keyboard, but it wasn't always like that after all. The typewriter was the brainchild of Italian inventor Giuseppe Pellegrino Turri. He noticed that his friend, Countess Carolina Fantoni da Fivizzano, was unable to write letters on her own due to her blindness - and we recall that handwritten letter correspondence was then as common as today's SMS!

Inspired by the predicament of his muse, this noble and talented Italian mechanic developed the first ever incarnation of a typewriter in 1608, which included keys and metal arms with convex characters. In the process, Turri also invented carbon paper to provide ink for the machine. Since then, the typewriter has undergone several metamorphoses, eventually evolving into the computer keyboard.

Electric toothbrushes

Dental hygiene is important for everyone, but people with limited motor skills can really struggle to keep their teeth clean. This was recognised in 1954 and the Broxodent electric toothbrush was developed to help people with limited strength, mobility and control to brush better.

Of course, it soon became apparent that electric toothbrushes were better than standard toothbrushes, which is why most dentists now encourage their use. And so an item designed for people with disabilities has the power to improve everyone's health. Studies unequivocally show that people who use the electric versions keep their teeth healthy for longer, suffer less tooth decay and enjoy healthier gums.

Good OXO handles and similar kitchen tools

Contemporary designed kitchen tools, from potato peelers to can openers, almost always have softer, larger handles, that are much more comfortable to hold than traditional ones. However, this was not the norm in the 1990s.

Inventor Sam Farber saw that his wife, who suffered from Arthritis, had difficulty handling a potato peeler. The result of this observation? Sam founded the OXOi brand and the Good Grips line. There's no denying that it's not just the Farbers who have excelled at this.

Every kitchen tool designed and manufactured by the brand has a wide, oval-shaped handle that is easy to control, even if you don't have strength in your hands. Items have also started to feel good in the hands, thanks to the use of soft rubber, originally developed for automotive products. The Good Grips style became so popular that many other brands copied it - thankfully.

Speech-to-text and voice recognition applications

If you've ever had your question answered by Alexa or the directions displayed in a GPS app get you to your destination - that means you're familiar with speech-to-text or voice recognition technology. This technology is used in the vast majority of phones, not to mention military aircraft, car navigation systems, entertainment and home automation.

However, one of the needs, the mother of this invention, was to enable people who could not physically write to be able to record their thoughts and words. Software invented in the 1990s allowed users to create written documents and save/open them simply by using their voice. Later, versions were also created specifically for people working in courtrooms or as medical transcriptionists.

Fidget Spinners

This toy was in vogue in 2017 and every child simply had to have one (if you were a child 6 years ago, you know something about this).

The Fidget Spinner is a device with three blades arranged around a wheel with bearings in the middle, which you spin to calm yourself or increase your concentration. Engineer Catherine Hettinger invented the prototype back in 1993 as a gadget to entertain her 7-year-old daughter. Unfortunately, her patent expired before the worldwide fashion for Spinners took hold, so she did not get rich from the craze.

In the early 2000s, manufacturers promoted these gadgets as a way to calm people with autism, ADHD and anxiety disorders. Studies have not confirmed that they help those suffering from these conditions, while millions of others, whether stressed businessmen or bored schoolchildren, have enjoyed spinning for fun. Spinners were even banned in some schools because, ironically, they were a distraction.

As a reminder: fidget means to wriggle. The Fidget Spinner is one of the first fidget toys. Silent sensory toys that help with self-regulation - that is, when set in motion, they calm you down, relieve stress and at the same time help you to concentrate. What do fidget toys include? These include the famous Pop it or equally good old bubble wrap, flick pens, caps and even our own fingers, which we snap or twirl when we are stressed.

Sloping kerbs

It is probably quite obvious that lowered kerbs were originally designed with wheelchair users in mind. Sloping kerbs first appeared in 1945. But the most famous became the one in Berkley. One evening in the early 1970s, Michael Pachovas and some friends drove up to a curb in Berkeley, California, poured cement on it in the form of a primitive ramp and drove off into the night. They were threatened with arrest, and went down in history for changing the world for the better under the name 'the curb effect'.

Sloping kerbs became commonplace in the US after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, which mandated lowered kerbs on all pavements.

 Not only people with disabilities, but parents pushing prams with small children, travellers pulling suitcases on wheels, skateboarders and workers carrying heavy loads in wheelchairs also found them useful. Not only that, but a study of pedestrian behaviour in a shopping centre in Sarasota, Florida, conducted shortly after the great boom in sloping kerbs, found that nine out of ten 'unencumbered pedestrians' would do their best to use a sloping kerb. But that's another story.

Audiobooks

Braille is still a useful tool for visually impaired readers, however it is Audiobooks that have made it much easier to enjoy a good story. The idea was born in 1932 thanks to the American Foundation for the Blind. The group recorded books on vinyl records, but of course, as technology developed, the possibilities grew.

Storage has evolved: from just 15 minutes of recorded speech on a vinyl record in the 1930s, to two hours on Amazon's Audible audio player in 2007, to the hundreds of hours of content that the average smartphone can now hold.

Now all people enjoy the convenience and ease of Audiobooks. Many listen to them in the car or at home, in an attempt to cut down on time spent in front of screens. It seems to have been successful, as the Audiobook market has already reached sales of $1.3 billion in 2020.

Bending straws

Although the simple paper straw was a marvel in itself when it was created in 1888, in the 1930s a man named Joseph Friedman improved the design so that the drinking straws would bend in the middle. He came up with the idea when he noticed that his petite daughter was unable to enjoy a milkshake standing too tall. He inserted the screw into a straight straw and wrapped it with dental floss to create the undulating effect.

Although the tool was not originally designed with strictly disabled people in mind, here we have a design with accessibility in mind. Naturally, hospitals were some of the first places to use them, as they were helpful for lying patients trying to get something to drink. Then everyone loved the plastic bendy straws - until they were banned for environmental reasons. Well, you have to design a reusable version.

Hot and Good news

The invisible are becoming more and more visible, and as a result many new and equally cool inventions have been created for them recently. These include a Braille smartphone, an off-road wheelchair that is a cross between a scooter and a segway, and Liftware, a self-stabilising handle that can be attached to a spoon or fork.