kestrell

Kes: Alexx forwarded this to me, and I really like the idea of architects and designers having the opportunity to walk in someone else's orthopedic shoes. I've had arthritis since I was a baby, but some days it is still kind of embarrassing to have to ask someone else to open my package of food, or that stupid plastic bubble stuff that everything gets packaged in nowadays. I seriously worry sometimes what elderly people who live alone eat. And you know what else sucks? Commercial scissors--it's only in recent years that I found the more expensive sewing scissors didn't hurt my hands.

Yes, we can make the design easier, so why not start now and get a jump on the rest of the revolution

from
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129307071&sc=fb&cc=fp

What Does It Feel Like To Be 75? Say Goodbye To Spry

by Jennifer Ludden

August 29, 2010

While reporting my recent series on Aging At Home, I came across a special
suit at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology AgeLab. It's meant to
help 20-something engineers feel the aches and limitations of an average
75-year-old so they can design better products for them. Think of it as
working like those outfits Superheroes put on, only backward. Of course, I
couldn't resist.

Now, I'm 40-something - no spring chicken. But if the crosswalk light is
blinking, I can still dash across the street, no problem. Until, that is,
MIT researcher Rozanne Puleo starts strapping me into what she calls her
Age Gain Now Empathy System.

I pull a harness around my waist and Puleo starts attaching things to it.
First, stretchy rubber bands connect from my waist to the bottom of my
feet.

"It will limit your hip flexion," Puleo explains.

That means no more sprinting. More stretchy bands restrict my arm
movements. There are knee pads and Velcro wrist braces; rubber gloves to
lessen sensation in my fingers; yellow goggles to limit my depth
perception. Everything on the suit is carefully calibrated to mimic the
loss of function that happens as we age.

Finally, Puleo fits me into a hard hat and attaches yet more things to
that. And that's when this all starts to feel like a bad idea. It has
become work simply to stand up straight. And to walk? Puleo has me in
Crocs sandals, with bits of rubber foam taped to the bottom. I haven't
exactly lost my balance, but it feels like I easily could.

"The act of having to balance makes you more fatigued, makes you more
tired," she says.

MIT researchers say baby boomers, of course, aren't the first to get old.
But Joseph Coughlin, the head of the AgeLab, says they're the first to
say, "Wait a minute, there's gotta be a product, a service or something to
make this better, easier, more convenient."

And that's the AgeLab's mission.

Puleo has outfitted graduate students in her age suit and taken them
grocery shopping. Each had a list of typical items a senior might want.

"What we found," she says, "was a lot of the low-sugar, low-sodium items
were either at the top of the shelf or the bottom of the shelf - not in a
place where an older adult would have the easiest time locating."

Sure enough, when I step over to the AgeLab's mock grocery store, that box
of Ritz crackers sitting way up on the top shelf does not seem worth the
trouble.

Coughlin says he wants to spread this kind of "aha moment," not just to
grocery chains but also to product designers and city planners - "The
'aha' for the 30-year-old that says, 'Wow this box of cupcakes is hard to
open. Wow, getting out of this public transportation system is more
difficult than I thought.'"

Puleo wants those who try on her suit to feel more empathy for seniors. I,
for one, have come to appreciate that spring in my step while I still have
it.