From jar openers to key grippers, devices designed by UF students help people with disabilities
- UF students are collaborating to create custom 3D-printed assistive devices for the community.
- The project pairs occupational therapy students with engineering teams to develop low-cost solutions for daily challenges like opening jars or stabilizing items on wheelchairs.
- Participants receive personalized tools designed to address specific needs that are often overlooked by large-scale manufacturers of medical equipment.
While access has improved for people with disabilities, small inconveniences still exist everywhere. To solve that — piece by piece — students from the University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions and the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering are helping design 3D-printed assistive devices for locals with unique needs.
The devices community members asked for are simple — a specialized jar opener, a key gripper, an adjustable iPad stand and a phone stabilizer — items that are hard to find because they aren’t manufactured on a large scale like wheelchairs and prosthetic limbs.
Living without the smaller items might not be the biggest problem in the world, “but it is a daily nuisance,” said Gainesville resident Dug Jones, a participant in the project. “We are at a point where so many of the really critical needs have been addressed, so we can turn our attention to more quality-of-life things.”
During the fall, UF Doctor of Occupational Therapy students met with community participants and Generational Relief in Prosthetics, or GRiP — an interdisciplinary student organization, funded by the Department of Biomedical Engineering, that provides free 3D-printed assistive devices to people who might otherwise not be able to get them due to cost or availability.