Hold up an assistive or adaptive device[s] and ask students:

Alternatively, gather enough assistive and adaptive devices so that students can work in small groups on this activity.

Set up 4-5 workstations in the classroom to allow students to explore some of the difficulties faced by individuals with disabilities. Depending on time availability, either have each student work at only one station, or have each student visit several or all work stations. If rotating, allow ~10 minutes at each station.

The Student Worksheets include the following items:

• Prepare vision impairment glasses: Using a pair of plastic wrap-around glasses, use a piece of sandpaper to roughen the glasses to various degrees. Label them A, B or C, but do NOT include information on the level of impairment in the labels or worksheets; leave that for students to figure out as part of the activity. A = moderately impaired, B = mildly impaired, C = severely impaired. Alternatively, tape layers of scotch tape over the glasses lenses to make them hard to see through.
• Note: Two different versions of the vision impaired worksheet have been included; one version is for one pair of glasses and the other version is for multiple pairs.
• Make the puzzle: Using a picture of a familiar person or place and a paper cutter, create the jigsaw puzzle. First, cut the picture so its overall dimensions are 6 inches (15.2 cm) by 9 inches (22.8 cm). Next, cut this same picture into nine equal rectangles, each measuring 2 inches (5.1 cm) by 3 inches (7.6 cm). Use the paper cutter to make these rectangles as uniform as possible. Shuffle the puzzle pieces and place in an envelope.
• Gather materials and make copies of the student worksheets.

• Locate the wheelchair station next to a set of shelves so students must reach from the wheelchair, attempting to retrieve an object from a high shelf. If you do not have easily accessible shelves, place sticky notes (Post-Its) at various heights on the classroom board and position the wheelchair in front of it. Set clear boundaries for where the wheelchairs and crutches are allowed to move about.
• At the vision impairment station, use a towel, large box, or cloth to cover the items students will be trying to see. Alternatively, place the items face down on the table.
• If you are opting to use the crutch-wheelchair-walking course challenge, set up a route, perhaps in the hall or cafeteria. Choose three points along the way at which each student is to retrieve a sticky note. (Instead of putting the notes directly on the wall, you may want to put them on a piece of paper taped to the wall.) At one location, place the notes should at a comfortable height for all three students. At another point, place them higher, and at the third spot, relatively low. After traveling the course, students walk back to the starting point, placing the sticky notes back on the papers as they go.

• Demonstrate taping down a student’s thumb to model the loss of opposable thumb. Ask students to put on the gloves such that the thumb is not inserted into the glove. Then, tape down the thumb to disable its movement. Then pick up a penny, close a zipper, button a jackiet , tie a shoe and open an empty child-proof bottle.
• Represent moderately or severely diminished eyesight. Have a student with the impairment glasses read from different medicine bottles, school books, posters in the room or a medical eye chart. Have them try to put together a picture of a famous person or building that you have previously cut into 9 equal parts.
• In introducing the wheelchair station, ask students, “How do you reach something if you have to be seated all the time?” Tasks include reaching for a cup on a shelf, picking up somthing small/low to the ground, carrying a plastic cup of water (without holding it between legs) or moving while something bulky that does not fit in one’s lap (such as a guitar case, a huge beach ball or an empty cardboard box).
• Have students at the crutches station each carry one (large) book while traveling from one end of the classroom to the other. Then again with three (large) books. Try again while carrying a plastic cup filled with water. Compare this disability to the wheelchair station where students in the wheelchair attempt to carry a guitar case, a large suitcase, a pile of books, or a plastic cup of water.
• (optional) Mobility Comparison Course: Put several sticky notes in three different areas and heights of a hallway or classroom. Record the time required for a student with no disabilities to pick them up and compare with the time needed by students in a wheelchair or using crutches to complete the same activities. Ask students to assess the relative difficulty of this task, comparing the three modes of mobility.

Safety Issues

• Use crutches and wheelchairs appropriately, being mindful of stairwells and other hazards.
• Students working at the impaired eyesight workstation should not leave their seats until they have taken off the glasses.
• Instruct students in the correct use of crutches. Armpits do not rest on the crutch pads. Instead, use your hands to support your weight.
• You may wish to have several pairs of crutches already adjusted to different heights in order to avoid students changing the heights of the crutches themselves.
• Instruct students in safe use of the wheelchair, being careful not to stick fingers in spokes. Show them the brakes and the correct method for turning the chair. Remind them that wheelchairs can tip over, and that anyone who tips a chair may face both an injury and a consequence.
• At the opposable thumbstation, make sure students do not tape their thumbs to their palms directly. Ask them to use the gloves before taping their thumbs, to prevent any injury while removing the tape.

Assessment

Pre-Activity Assessment

Activity Embedded Assessment

Post-Activity Assessment

Additional Resources 

• The Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation includes a photo essay on the history of prosthetics from peg legs to the FlexFoot, a look at hearing aids through history, and Yorick, an interactive bionic skeleton that displays various implantable devices. (Photo, right.)
• Freedom Machines. Free standards-based lesson plans and activities to be used with PBS’s POV (Point of View) documentary on engineering lighter, sturdier wheelchairs and other assistive devices. Click here to watch the Freedom Machines trailer. PBS has free lending library of DVDs for teachers.
• Designing Swimming Prosthetics for a Dancer. PBS Design Squad video about creating prosthetic devices for an amputee’s underwater performance. Another video explores the process of designing a wheelchair for a rugby player.
• Class Projects Change Lives. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill biomedical engineering undergraduates design devices to help disabled individuals work or enjoy kayaking. [YouTube 5:36]
• The Arthritis Foundation has a a list of recommended “easy to use” products and packaging, many created with considerations for “universal design.”
• Adaptive sports equipment. The American Society for Engineering Education’s Prism magazine featured assistive technologies for skiers, runners, and other athletes. The National Science Foundation teamed up with NBC Learn to produce a series on engineering of the 2012 Olympic games, including a video of South African double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius, aka “Bladerunner,” and his carbon-fiber prosthetic limbs.
• TechXcite, a series of activities plus videos, teacher’s guide, and student worksheets from Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering, introduces kids to engineering design through developing a prosthetic arm. In one activity, for instance, students explore hydraulic and pneumatic systems and how they can move a mechanical arm. At the end of this module, each pair of students will have designed and built their own prosthetic arm.
• A Robot for Grandma. Short news feature on Worcester Polytechnic’s research to develop assistive robots to prolong independent living for the elderly.
• ASEE’s Prism magazine articles examining adaptive technologies for 1) amputees and other athletes with physical disabilities (“Leaps and Bounds”, Summer 2011); 2) cars and homes to help the elderly age in place; and 3) adapting instruction for deaf or hard-of-hearing engineering students.