USP Patent Aims for Accessibility for People with Dwarfism
According to the Ministry of Health, “dwarfism is a disorder characterized by growth deficiency, resulting in a person with short stature, compared to the average population of the same age and sex” . People with dwarfism, due to the standard height of things — whether cabinets, ceilings, beds or chairs — have reduced accessibility.
With this in mind, professor Katia Gandolpho Candioto, from USP’s Lorena School of Engineering, and other students created an adaptable and sustainable staircase for people with dwarfism. “It was a project developed with undergraduate Physics Engineering students within a discipline in which an engineering project is developed throughout the semester”, explains the professor.
As the theme was assistive technology, that is, providing support and autonomy for a person with a disability, the students arrived at this topic. The project, which was only intended to be a university project, later became a USP patent.
A ladder and a table
One of the attributes is its adaptability: the ladder is capable of transforming into a table as well. “They [the students] thought of a staircase strategy and a little beyond: that it would automatically be versatile to be used within their residence”, comments Katia.
However, the table’s differences don’t stop there. Anti-slip tapes and a guardrail were planned to add greater safety for the user, in addition to the great concern with the height of the steps. “If we stop to think, I understand that there wasn’t that much difference from what already exists, but the big difference is that, in commerce, you don’t find any with this height ratio, so that’s when they gained patent credit for take care of that”, adds the teacher.
Inclusion
According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), there is one person with dwarfism for every 10,000, but the data is still uncertain. Furthermore, in 2017, the law establishing October 25th as National Day to Combat Prejudice against People with Dwarfism was sanctioned.
The patent for this ladder is also a way of including these people: “We know that not everyone is the same height. So, we think, ‘Wow, these people are discriminated against, they are dependent on climbing unsafely. Let’s make sure they also have the right to pick up a product from a cupboard and everything else independently’”, explains Katia. “There is a percentage of people with dwarfism and they deserve to have autonomy, so we understand that this is fundamental to their lives”, she adds.