Cerebral Palsy affects millions of people globally, being diagnosed in 2-3 out of every 1,000 births[5]. Cerebral Palsy itself is a movement disorder stemming from damage to the brain. Individuals affected by this disorder commonly experience stiffness in their muscles, decreased balance, and spasticity[5]. With these difficulties, many individuals with cerebral palsy experience difficulty walking unassisted, shifting while seated, or getting in and out of bed.
Because of these difficulties, our team, DTC 13-3, was asked by physical therapists Walter Guminiak and Valarie Pech to design a device to help alleviate these difficulties for our user, Marc Tinsley. Marc takes medication which causes him to suddenly fall asleep. When this happens while he is seated at the edge of his bed, Marc often falls onto the floor. In order to prevent this, we were tasked to design a restraint to catch Marc when he falls or to prevent falling entirely. We were given a timeframe of 10 weeks to create our design as well as a budget of $100. While conducting user testing, it was found that Marc sits at the edge of his bed and therefore puts himself at risk of falling because he experiences difficulty getting his legs into his bed so that he can lay down. Upon learning this, our team shifted our focus from a restraint to a device to assist in lifting the user’s legs into his bed.
While there exists current market solutions to lift an individual’s legs up while seated or lying down, these devices each fall short in some capacity. First, many of these devices require both hands to operate which makes them impractical for Marc because of reduced left arm mobility and function due to Cerebral Palsy. Secondly, many of these devices require foot dexterity which Marc may not have, causing the device to fall off. Finally, a leg brace worn by Marc attaches down to the bottom of his feet. This creates a slippery plastic surface onto which many of these devices are unable to attach.
This report discusses the users, requirements, and specifications for the design. This is followed by a detailed description of the design and the reasoning behind choices which were made during development. Finally, we discuss future developments for the design which may improve function as well as user satisfaction.