Dream designs from NID for people with special needs

How an article is designed can have an impact on the life of those who use it regularly. This becomes self-evident if you look at some furniture that has been designed for people with special needs, by the undergraduate students of NID’s department of furniture design. The students came up with these designs while working on a project named, ‘design for special needs’.

One of the students, Neha Gupta, has re-designed the wheeled board that is used for mobility by people who cannot use their feet. Gupta has re-designed the board especially for use by children with the same disability. She had earlier worked with differently-abled children at Apang Manav Mandal in the city.
Gupta said many of the children she worked with used wooden boards with wheels to move around. “But the kids found it difficult to climb stairs with the board because the wood makes the board very heavy,” Gupta said. “Moreover, it is also difficult
to maneuver.”

While working on a new design for the board, Gupta focused on ways to make it lighter, sturdier and easily maneuverable. Instead of wood, she found another material which is sturdy and light, and replaced the traditional wheels with swivel castors so that children using it could change direction easily. 

She also attached straps to the new board so that children could carry it on their backs like a schoolbag while going up the stairs.