Designing a Bed Table For People With Limited Mobility — Scope | Disability forum
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Designing a Bed Table For People With Limited Mobility

lkenny105
lkenny105 Community member Posts: 14 Listener
Hello all! I am designing a product for my Design and Technology GCSE that will be a sort of bed table for people with mobility issues such that they have a need to be seated most of the time. I now have my first basic design and a model of that (see below). If this product could apply to you, would you mind leaving me a few comments on your thoughts of it? These could include features that you like/dislike, improvements that could be made etc. Please be honest as it will really help me make the most functional product that I can! (The first photo is the view from above and the second is the view from below.)
Thank you for your time.


Comments

  • chrisvanf
    chrisvanf Community member Posts: 63 Courageous
    Hi @lkenny105.
    A good first design, 
    If you could consider a couple of changes.
    I designed and built a similar thing for a friend who could not use their' right arm, hand, leg, foot.
    Instead of rebating for access so the table came around the person, could you not design it without a rebate but a with small wide arc on the leading side perhaps only in the middle third, so the first third is flat, the middle third is a wide convex arc, and the last third flat. 
    I did it this way so the hands and arms would not knock the table every time the person tried to get something off it.

    And.
    I made 4 separate height adjustable legs (50mm in 0,25,50mm centres) this allowed the table to be positioned tilted and flat.
    It could also be moved to say a chair.
    I also placed a small 10mm bead around the table to catch objects or spilt liquids.

    Although this worked for my friend it may not work for others, but a couple of ideas that worked for me.

    Good Luck with the project      
    Edited, re-edited, bits added, bits taken out spellchecked then edited again, 
  • lkenny105
    lkenny105 Community member Posts: 14 Listener
    chrisvanf said:
    Hi @lkenny105.
    A good first design, 
    If you could consider a couple of changes.
    I designed and built a similar thing for a friend who could not use their' right arm, hand, leg, foot.
    Instead of rebating for access so the table came around the person, could you not design it without a rebate but a with small wide arc on the leading side perhaps only in the middle third, so the first third is flat, the middle third is a wide convex arc, and the last third flat. 
    I did it this way so the hands and arms would not knock the table every time the person tried to get something off it.

    And.
    I made 4 separate height adjustable legs (50mm in 0,25,50mm centres) this allowed the table to be positioned tilted and flat.
    It could also be moved to say a chair.
    I also placed a small 10mm bead around the table to catch objects or spilt liquids.

    Although this worked for my friend it may not work for others, but a couple of ideas that worked for me.

    Good Luck with the project      
    Thank you so much for your feedback- some really great ideas that I will definitely explore. 
  • Andrew45
    Andrew45 Community member Posts: 4 Listener
    Hi it's my first day on here ,so hope you don't think me pushy, but being a joiner by trade although retired many years now, I love to make things for my wife to make her life easier, your design is excellent the only suggestion I would make is a small upstaged around the edge of the table to stop the contents from being pushed off the table, mine has four individual legs as I found the sheets and blankets or duvet on=ften had folds in it that caused a rocking motion on my first prototype so much like yours you might think its a copy, well done
  • lkenny105
    lkenny105 Community member Posts: 14 Listener
    Andrew45 said:
    Hi it's my first day on here ,so hope you don't think me pushy, but being a joiner by trade although retired many years now, I love to make things for my wife to make her life easier, your design is excellent the only suggestion I would make is a small upstaged around the edge of the table to stop the contents from being pushed off the table, mine has four individual legs as I found the sheets and blankets or duvet on=ften had folds in it that caused a rocking motion on my first prototype so much like yours you might think its a copy, well done
    Thank you so much, this is really helpful feedback. Did your wife find that your similar product did indeed help her as it would be great to know whether such a product has been proven to work?
  • Jean_OT
    Jean_OT Community member Posts: 513 Pioneering
    Several of the commercially available bed trays also offer a drawer  for storing small items (pen, glasses, tv remote etc) and the ability to angle part of the table top with is potentially useful  to support a book or computer tablet. For example:

    Jean Merrilees BSc MRCOT

    You can read more of my posts at: https://community.scope.org.uk/categories/ask-an-occupational-therapist

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