BUILDING BETTER DEVICES: Queen’s Engineering students Leigh Janssen and Olivia Roud are working with Kingston resident Jim Stinson this summer to develop assistive devices that will enable him to read and write more independently.
Building better together Interdisciplinary initiative lets Biomechanical Engineering students make a difference in the community
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aving access to the best assistive technologies can mean the difference between dependence and independence for people living with disabilities. The simple joy of reading an exciting novel, for example, can be out of reach for someone who can’t comfortably hold a book upright and open or turn its pages long enough to get lost in the story. “I’m at the point where I either need someone to read to me or I can listen to audio books,” says Jim Stinson, who uses a wheelchair and has multiple sclerosis, which affects his ability to hold a book or a pen. “But a big factor in reading a book is that you get to imagine the different scenarios. When the story is read to me, someone else develops the characters with their imagination. I like to do that myself.” There are lots of assistive devices on the market that propose to help people with similar challenges, but mass-market devices so often demand compromises from end users. Results are just so much 2 THE COMPLETE ENGINEER
better with custom assistive devices, or devices that can be infinitely adapted over time to an individual user’s specific needs and wants.
We’ve worked around some things that were difficult for me, and the
devices they’ve developed are very good solutions for people who
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have difficulty reading or writing. I have nothing but great things to say about the engineers and occupational therapists who work at Queen’s. —Jim Stinson
That’s where Queen’s Engineering students come in. Fourth-year Biomechanical Engineering students
Olivia Roud and Leigh Janssen, under the supervision of Queen’s Engineering Professor Dr. Claire Davies (Sc’97), are working with Stinson this summer to design, build, and refine the devices that will enable him to read and write more routinely and independently. “This was our first experience getting to work with an actual end user and someone in the community,” says Janssen. “As undergraduates, our projects are often based on hypothetical problems involving imaginary people. Getting to work with Jim, an actual client, and address his needs directly is great experience. Jim gives so much more information and feedback than we would get in a hypothetical situation.” Among the devices Roud and Janssen are working on is a special copy stand to fit over the armrest of Stinson’s wheelchair. It can help support the weight of a book and hold it open in just the right position so Stinson can read the text clearly and turn the pages much
