Track: High School STEM Competition

Abstract

This project highlights the need for enhancing the mobility of people who use blind canes while also going about their daily activities. Currently having your one hand tied up holding the cane creates limitations for people who use the blind canes. Our solution allows cane users to be able to stand the cane on the floor without it falling, thus eliminating the need for searching it again. This solution is a step ahead of the existing cane stands because, unlike existing stands, it does not require either the person to find a wall, or a shelf to hang the cane or fold the cane to hang it. This gives the user immediate freedom from holding the cane, for example to shake somebody's hand or sign a check.

We built this solution using six stages of problem solving, understanding and defining the problem, researching existing solutions., conducting in-depth user interviews and observations, determining the specifications, and developing several design iterations before the final design was accepted and approved by our co-designer, user Ms. Jill Wolfe.

Ms. Wolfe is suffering from progressive blindness and have been struggling with the use of cane while working. She served as the co-designer throughout the process by sharing her experiences with us and giving us user inputs on the design iterations. In this manner, I used the user-centered design process to develop this prototype.