[Gllug] Robot arms for the disabled

[Rich Walker]

Jim Bailey <jim at freesolutions.net> writes:

> On Thu, Aug 08, 2002 at 06:23:53PM +0200, John Hearns wrote:
> > Congratulations to Rich Walker on the BBC news item:
> > 
> > http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/2178226.stm
> > 
> > ps. can I have one for the next time I'm down the pub?
> > I don't GENERALLY have a problem with raising the glass
> > to my lips but it would be nice.
> >
> Congrats Rich and to the rest of your team there.
> 
> I am now going to stick my neckn out here and speak my mind about how
> pissed off I am about the response from David Colley, chairman of the
> British Council of Disabled People.

I thought he had a point :> We looked at the Disabled Living Foundation
list of "things we would like to be invented" - they have a list of
about 56, and we think we can do half with this device...

> "It's unfortunate that disabled people are constantly used as a reason
> for inventing new gadgets." 
> 
> As someone who helped nurse his Dad through terminal cancer and watch a
> trim 50 year old man turn in to a 20 stone bloated bed ridden cripple
> because of steroid treatments.  As the brother of 17 year old Michael
> who has Cornelia de Lange Syndrome.[1]  As the son of a Woman (my
> mother) who has serve Rheumatoid Arthritis, half her spine fused together
> by surgeons and the other half crumbling away around it.  As someone
> with a high percentage of friends who are care workers, with emphasis on
> "care", under staffed and under payed (most earn little more than the
> minimum wage).
> 
> May just say thank you for gagets, for simple things like the specially
> adapted spoon my bro uses to feed himself and the specially designed
> walker he uses to get around.  Thank you too for the numerous gagets and
> devices that my mother uses to get out of the bath open tins, bottles
> and packages.
> 
> I don't think the arm is going to be good enough for a while to take on
> the task of cleaning dressing and when necessary feeding my bro  It may
> just be smart enough soon to make a cup of tea for my mum after a hard
> day when the tiredness and the pain are particularily bad.

It's mostly aimed at doing some kind of simple assistance; lifting and
carrying the person *is* the sort of thing a carer is good for, rather
than a machine. 

> It is kit like this that will free carers from the drugery of there work
> and allow them to spend quality time with the people they assist,
> whether they are doing it for a loved one or it is their job.
> 
> OT  That smug little shit Anthony Hilton buisness editor of The Evening
> Standard recently did an editorial on how the government should be firm
> with the pay demands of care workers and other public sector workers.
> Bringing out the spectre of stag inflation from the 70s.  Where was he
> when executive pay and pay in the city was going through the roof
> driving up house prices and forcing ancillary workers out of the
> property ladder and into sub-standard housing?

Do *not* get me started on the Evening Standard. Let alone business journalists...

cheers, Rich.

-- 
rich walker | technical person | Shadow Robot Company | rw at shadow.org.uk
front-of-tshirt space to let     251 Liverpool Road   |
                                 London  N1 1LX       | +UK 20 7700 2487

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