Cerebral Palsy: Stove Project
A Stove can be a great tool for cooking meals; however, it can also serve as a dangerous weapon. In 2002 the U.S. Fire Administration documented an estimated 156,500 fires in the kitchen area of the home. This unfortunately yielded 331 deaths and 4,914 injuries, around 90% of which were related to cooking in the kitchen.
In our case study we have explored the redesign of the pot for individuals who suffer from Cerebral Palsy. People who suffer from this developmental disorder have difficulty with balance and often display involuntary movement. As a result, this can make cooking even more difficult and dangerous. In 50% of kitchen fires the cooking ingredients including; food, oil, grease, and utensils can become weapons of ignition. Furthermore, hot surfaces and contents that are produced from cooking can be spilled easily and can severely burn an individual.
We have yet to discover the exact ratio of people with Spastic Cerebral Palsy who can walk to those who are bound to wheelchairs. While using a wheelchair adds other difficulties to cooking, our proposal still provides some cost effective benefits to working in the kitchen.
The following is our storyboard subject:
* Name: John Dough (classified with mental retardation) * Age: 22 * Mobility: can stand and walk with some difficulty * Type of Cerebral Palsy: Spastic * Muscle Groups Impaired: Hemiplegia Case: Right Arm, Forearm, Calve, and Intrinsic muscles * Degree of impairment: Calves undeveloped, Arms and forearms are functional, Intrinsic muscle not fully functional. * Visible Symptoms: poor posture, poor speech, sudden non-functional movement in arms and forearms
Cooking Scenario:
* Cooking Tools: Set of pots * Cooking plan: fill pot with water, boil water, add pasta, drain water, serve pasta.
What are the issues?
* Reaching, grasping, and holding cooking resources. * Major safety issues: Stove burner, boiling water, hot surface of the pan, sauce, and splattering ingridents.
Specific safety issues:
1 Pot may be bumped off stove while cooking, spilling hot water/sauce. 2 Pot may be dropped while being carried to sink, spilling hot water/sauce. 3 Pot may be set down on lap by accident by people in wheelchairs, burning holder's lap. 4 Pot may be dropped while pouring its contents into strainer, spilling hot water. 5 Pot may be put down on counter-top after pouring contents, burning counter-top.
OUR SOLUTION: Straining Pot
We propose the creation of a new type of pot that would double as a strainer. In overview, this would be similar in shape and size to a normal pot, but would have a mesh lining at the bottom of the inside, and a small hole that can be opened and closed to drain water from the pot. Such a pot would aid the cooking process because:
* when closed, it can be filled with water, placed on a stove-top, and heated as normal * when cooking is complete, it can be moved to the sink as normal * it eliminates the need to tip the pot enough to pour the contents into a separate strainer * it can be washed more easily since it need not be tipped to pour out the dirty water
While it does not address all the specific safety issues. It does help:
* because the user no longer needs to pour the contents into a separate strainer * since there is no strainer, the pot itself would be put in the sink
The mechanism to open and close the bottom of the pot would need to be made so that it could not be accidentally opened (for instance, while on the stove). This could be done by making the mechanism into a large rubber handle that must be turned at least twice to open the hole, so that accidentally hitting it or turning it partially would not suffice. Additionally, it would be impossible to start cooking with the pot in the open position since the water would have spilled out in the sink before being carried to the stove. (The use of a color like red to indicate that the pot is in the open possition would provide a simpler visual feedback.)
A mechanism for the opening of the pot could involve a rubber knob on the side, connected via shafts to a screw-top that opens and closes the hole. We must investigate the reality of creating a water-tight seal that won't degrade over time.