Project on improvements on every day DIY tools for the elderly and disabled

geek84

Hi Folks

A friend of mine is doing a project on how every day DIY tools can be improved so that they can be use easily used be the elderly, disabled, and other individuals who have below average movement and strength in their body..

Can you think of any tools which can be improved in that way?

Where is the best place in order to get more information regarding this?

Thanks in advance for your responses.

kripel

i guess there are solution already- power tools!

geek84

Any further suggestions greatly appreciated.

PheoUK

My grandmother has arthritis - meaning she has poor strength in her wrists. This can make mundane things like hoovering challenging as they put a lot of torque through the wrists.

I should imagine many have similar problems with not having the control and power available to either use a manual tool (e.g. screwdriver) or even power tools, which often require enough strength.

I wonder if they could come up with a way to help people hold the tools more effectively e.g. something ergonomically designed, or that have straps linking to the arms etc to make this easier.

geek84

Thanks for your comments.

geek84

Good Morning Folks

I hope you're all well. We still have not finished this project since my friend (who is doing the project, and I'm just helping) had a family bereavement. However, we're back on to this now, and was wondering if an online survey would be good in order to find out people's views of the difficulties they have using DIY tools or completing DIY projects?

However, neither of us has any clue as to how to carry out an online survey. Would anybody kind enough out there point us in the right direction?

Thanks in advance for your responses.

tacpot12

Have a look at https://www.surveymonkey.com

But I think you will find that the market for such adapted tools will be very small. The infirm have a choice on how they spend the money they have; I suspect most would prefer to pay a tradesman or ask a neighbour, friend or family member to do the work, rather than spend money on a tool that will have a limited application.

If the research is academic, then focus on the design of the tools, not whether they are marketable. If this is a business idea, I'd widden your focus to be how the infirm can get such work done cost effectively.

geek84

Good Morning tacpot12

Many thanks for your rely.

Would you be kind enough to explain what you mean by:

I'd widden your focus to be how the infirm can get such work done cost effectively.

Norman_Castle

geek84 wrote: »

Would you be kind enough to explain what you mean by:

I'd widden your focus to be how the infirm can get such work done cost effectively.

Presumably by paying someone rather than DIY.

Not sure if it fits your question but using torx head screws instead of philips may benefit some people depending on the disability.

Norman_Castle

tacpot12 wrote: »

But I think you will find that the market for such adapted tools will be very small. The infirm have a choice on how they spend the money they have; I suspect most would prefer to pay a tradesman or ask a neighbour, friend or family member to do the work, rather than spend money on a tool that will have a limited application.

I suspect many older or disabled people would prefer to do things themselves but cannot due to strength or mobility issues. Tools that are usable by them would, in effect, be reducing their disability.

I met someone recently who suffers from MS. He mentioned removing a section of decking which he was pleased he was able to do then talked about other DIY jobs that he clearly wanted to do but couldn't because of his disability. Being old or disabled doesn't remove the need for independence.

misswoosie

A few things. For whatever reason you're doing this "research" you need to have a clear "question" you would like to try and answer. That question needs to be relatively narrow and focused, particularly regarding the group of people you're interested in ie elderly OR disabled, young disabled people.
A lot of elderly people may have physical restrictions and ,maybe more importantly when thinking about DIY, they may also have cognitive problems , such as memory impairment, lack of insight and poor decision making skills. Not good for DIY projects and especially not good for using power tools!
A young disabled person, for example with arthritis or MS,may not have the additional problems, so they know exactly what they want and how to achieve it, but are restricted by their physical impairment.

So your question might be
What problems do elderly people face when trying to achieve home improvements?
As someone else said, they might not even consider DIY but have trouble finding reliable,trustworthy people who are prepared to do small jobs and fit in around their schedule, explain exactly what the elderly people need to do before the tradesmens arrival, how long it's going to take,how much mess there's going to be etc etc
It might also show what specific problems they have using regular or power tools. A lot of elderly people don't feel confident with technology or power tools.
If your question was
"What problems do young disabled people face when trying to achieve home improvements?"

Once you have a question, then you can decide on the "inclusion criteria". Basically who you want to complete your survey
ie age range, type of disability , type of project

From that you can decide on the questions you want to put into a survey.

Has your friend looked at what information is already available regarding the subject?