Introduction
Designing Assistive Devices for those with disabilities in rural Uganda.
CanUgan in association with KADUPEDI presented the need for devices to assist people with disabilities in the rural areas of Uganda. The goal for this project is to design products that not only assist these users but also create empowerment by allowing these devices to contribute to the quality of life of the user, their families, and the community.
Navin Parekh founded CanUgan in 2010. It is a non-profit organization based solely on a volunteer basis and has partnered with KADUPEDI (Kasese District Union of Persons’ with Disability) to protect, promote, and provide assistive devices to people with disabilities in Uganda. KADUPEDI is an organization located in Kasese that was founded in 1996 and has on 9 members of the executive committee both who work on a voluntary basis and all experience a disability themselves. The goal of KADUPEDI is to protect and improve the rights of all people with disabilities in the country.
This project is a continuation from the previous year’s group who created devices that were based on KADUPEDI’s current tricycle design. The projects from last year focused on creating a better structured tricycle design, a grinder that could be powered by the tricycle itself, a easy to produce walker made out of locally sourced steel, and a cell phone charging station that could be attached to the back of the tricycle. Although the objective for this project is to design assistive devices for those with disabilities, the focuses have expanded from the tricycle to other devices, users, and disabilities. For example, the grinder and cell phone station were both innovative ways that people with disabilities could generate an income as well as benefit physically from the assistive device.
User Research and Sketching
The objective of the first semester was to gain an in depth understanding of the context, the user, and the organization through primary and secondary research. Primary and secondary research confirmed the substantial need for assistive devices for children with disabilities as well as multiple design opportunities for the project. For this project, I decided to focus on designing an assistive device for children with disabilities to either enable them to an education or to be able to contribute to their family or community. I wanted to focus on increasing the benefits of the previous tricycle design by creating a two in one system. The product was a wheelchair that could turn into a tricycle. Now users did not have to compromise between not being able to travel long distances and not being able to travel indoors.
Through research we could start the ideation process, coming up with concepts through sketching and prototyping. As our research became more specific, our concepts were also narrowed down until one concept was decided before the end of the semester. After a concept was discovered through research, sketching became a major part of further development of the concept.
Prototyping in Canada
There was a general set of objectives that applied to all four of our projects. The design had to be economically feasible meaning it had to be, the product had to withstand the harsh environmental conditions, all the materials used in the design had to be locally sourced and manufactured by the local artisan, Kio, it needed to be safe to use and finally, it had to create empowerment by some means.
The first part of the semester was dedicated towards producing a concrete frame design for the wheelchair. If the wheelchair could not be manufactured then my design could not continue. I then decided to confirm the sketched design by making a full-scale model of it. By using this model, I tested the positions of the back wheels as well as the appropriate size of the castors. The prototype contained multiple holes so that the bicycle wheels could be repositioned in eight different considerations.
Due to the limited amount of time, the attachment system was simply designated in the drawings as two c-channels that would be bolted together. The design for the attachment was planned to be the main focus during the trip for the manufacturer and witnessing the conditions of the environment could provide better insight in the final form. The following images show the technical drawings and illustrations that I sent to Kiyo on February 2.
User Testing in Kasese
From February 12th to 18th we visited the district of Kasese where we not only met the members from the organization but we met the manufacturer, Kiyo as well. Upon arrival, Kio had already built the main structure of the device. All he needed to do is attach the bicycle wheels and the castor wheels that we had brought with us from Canada.
This prototype attempted to resemble the North American products discovered in the secondary research where the wheelchair would be angled so that the castor wheels would hover above the ground in order to avoid hitting degree. This prototype worked and Kiyo was able to angle the wheelchair high enough that the wheels were off the ground. Even though the concept worked there was still a problem that could only be realized when testing in the actual country. Due to the unexpected, extreme conditions of the roads, the castor wheels were still exposed to large rocks.
Based on the discoveries from the previous prototype, we decided that the castor wheels needed to be cut off, making them their own separate component. This would ensure that the user could not have the castor wheels attached while in tricycle mode. As a result this decreased the probability of tipping due to user error.
Peter, a member of KADUPEDI, was one disabled person that tested out my tricycle design. He liked the wheel placement and the wheelchair design. He stressed that for the wheelchair it was essential that the push bar from the previous tricycle design was still incorporated into the new design. The space of the push bar had to be large enough that someone could push the wheelchair if he needed help as well as it would be helpful if the space could also be able to hold his crutches. Another thing Peter was concerned about was the attachment system. He believed it was too tedious to line up the tubes in order to slide it into one another. It was also difficult to secure the components in place with bolts. Not only did it take a long time to do, you needed a wrench to do it, which could get lost during transportation. He recommended simplifying the design in order to make it easier.
Visiting RACPD
I also visited Maali Wilson (one of my primary contacts at the beginning of the year) and his school for children with disabilities (RACPD). At the school I got to see up close the imported devices that I read about in my research. I also witnessed the size of the doors and the ramps that were built specifically for the school and my wheelchair was able to travel up and through such doorways. I did speak with some of the faculty at this school and they all agreed that it would be extremely useful to have this product available due to the fact that not all students lived at the school and had to travel from home each day.
The Final Design
So much was learned on this trip, and all of this insight was taken back to Canada and incorporated into the final design. The attachment system was proven to work, but it had to be simplified and made easier for the user to attach.
The attachment system was greatly simplified from the prototype that was made in Kasese. Instead of using two tubes that slide in one another, the design now uses two c-channels. One of these c-channels is shaped like a hook that hooks onto a solid bar that is located in the larger c-channels that are attached to the wheelchair. These c-channels are secured into place by a simple barrel bold that the user easily slides into place. These bolts are definitely a large improvement in comparison to the bolts that were used to secure the prototypes in Uganda. They also do not require any additional hardware, such as wrenches, and is impossible for users to loose any parts.
Having the castor wheels as a separate component ensures that the user cannot be in tricycle mode while the castor wheels were attached. This is a safety concern that has been addressed by changing the design. The bottom of the wheelchair has a grate that allows the users to place the castor wheel component when transporting from place to place when in tricycle mode. Breaks have also been incorporated to allow users to stop the vehicle in case of an emergency when in tricycle mode. By having the attachment system on the outer sides of the wheelchair, allowed the castor wheels to be farther apart, reducing the chance of fluttering, which was one of the concerns that arose from the first prototype made in the preliminary design development stage.
