I heard a very interesting interview on the CBC the Current this morning.
A woman had been working on industrial design. She began to see that many of the things that were designed were far from senior friendly. She tried to influence fellow designers to put seniors on the agenda. Other designers were not interested.
She decided to learn more about design and seniors so that she could influence her fellow designers.
She had herself made into and 85 year old woman. The face took 3 hours to prepare. She had plugs in her ears for poor hearing. She had contacts that were partly opaque so that he vision was limited. I forget what they did to her legs to make her walking difficult. Style of clothing was considered.
Then she tried to live her life. It was difficult and challenging. Mobility is a great problem for seniors. On the streets people were impatient to get around her. People complained about her holding up traffic in the airport. People pushed and shoved to get her out of the way. Stairs, sidewalks and railings were a problem. Signs were a challenge.
So donning this costume over a series of years she learned more about what experiences seniors had. She also had more ammunition to try and persuade other designers to keep seniors in mind.
The world still isn't senior friendly but it has improved.
This project reminds me of a book I read many years ago. BLACK LIKE ME I enjoyed the book and got an idea of what some challenges might be for black people.
The book was severely criticized but I think it did open up some eyes.
