A brilliant promoter of modern and stylish design, the Coventry University Health Design & Technology Institute (HDTI) helps the helpers by assisting people who are aiming to create assistive products. The HDTI provides design, prototyping and user-centred product evaluation services to entrepreneurial individuals and companies developing new technologies designed to assist less physically able bodied people. The aim of…
Equipment for disabled people is functional to the point of being “institutional” says a new survey from Blue Badge Style. The results of the latest BBS Interest Panel, set up to find out about the opinions of the disabled community on both mobility and household equipment, found that the available products are generally considered “not…
I and the American Lieutenant ventured on a two hour drive to Birmingham last week to see Naidex National as it “celebrated its 40th Birthday in style” – let us be the judge of that. I was not expecting much and the first impression was ‘Oh no not more grey.’…..that was just the NEC Hall…
Naidex National, the UK’s largest disability, homecare and rehabilitation event, is now just days away. Kicking off on the 29th of April and concluding on 1 May at the NEC, Birmingham, this year is the event’s fortieth anniversary and it looks set to be the biggest and (we hope) best yet. With over 300 different exhibitors showcasing…
We’ve never really covered electric wheelchairs or power chairs in any great amount of detail on BBS for a number of reasons. Partly it’s because, with the importance of individual requirements, the prices involved and the provision of power chairs, we’re just not that sure how much influence a style guide would have. But what…
Every industry seems to have its own small part of the year that’s devoted to ‘awards season’. Rather than spreading out the accolades throughout the year, we get a concentrated span of time during which the majority of it all happens at once. This particular time of year is when the world’s best designers take…
Bringing the retro boom into to the wheelchair market, the fabulous KPII is a brand new wheelchair with its roots very much in the past. Hailed as the first ever vintage wheelchair, the KPII is inspired by, and based on, the model used by King Philip of Spain, the man generally considered to have been…
Following on from our previous article regarding ‘Inclusive Design‘, the shortlist of The Design Awards 2014 include two products we like; the Bradley watch and the Chair for Life. The Bradley watch is named after Paralympian blind swimmer Bradley Snyder who won gold medals at London 2012. The video below explains what it’s all about…
Creating stylish assistive products and mobility aids is great, but something that may well be even better is the idea of inclusive design – designs that are made for everyday use by everyone, regardless of mobility or ability. Inclusive design is a purer way of encapsulating the ethos of freedom shared and although mobility products are…