Barbara Beskind

Last updated
Barbara Beskind
Born
Barbara Knickerbocker

1924 (age 99100)
Education Syracuse University
Occupation(s)Inventor and designer

Barbara M. Knickerbocker Beskind (born 1924) is an American inventor and designer. [1]

Contents

Early education and career

Barbara Beskind grew up during the great depression, leading her family to grow their own food and make their own clothes. From the age of 10, Barbara had aspirations of becoming an inventor, [2] however she was told by her vocational advisor that engineering schools did not accept women, leading her to the field of home economics. She first attended Green Mountain Junior College in Vermont, but transferred to Syracuse University in 1943. In 1945, she graduated from The Home Economics school of Syracuse University where she studied Applied Arts and Design. [3] For 2 years while at Syracuse, she volunteered as an occupational therapist, eventually leading her to a 20 year long career as an occupational therapist for the Army. After retiring from the army, she opened the Princeton Center for Learning Disorders, [4] the first independent practice in occupational therapy in the United States. She retired in 1989 [5] with six patents, including an inflated square pillow for children with learning disabilities to play with, protected while they improve their sense of balance., [2] although none achieved . Following her retirement, she continued to study non-fiction writing, doing three summer courses at Bennington college and studying at Lebanon college for six semesters. She has since published three books under her maiden name, Barbara Knickerbocker: Barbara Knickerbocker: an historical family autobiography, Powderkeg; a book of her art and poetry, Touches of Life in Time and Space; and an historical fiction, Flax to Freedom. [6] Barbara takes great care of her health, stating in January 2020 that she takes no prescription medicine and goes to a fitness center for at least 2 hours, 3 times per week, [7] although she suffers from macular degeneration causing her to be legally blind. [2]

IDEO

In 2013, 89 year old Barbara Beskind saw IDEO founder, David Kelley speak on 60 Minutes about the importance of diversity of experience among team members to develop new products and services. [3] She typed a letter to the company, as she is unable to use computers due to her macular degeneration, [2] offering to help design products for aging and low-vision populations. [3] Within a week, IDEO invited her to tell her story to executives at the company. She then became an adviser for equipment and designing products and services for the elderly and the low-vision community. [2] With IDEO, she has worked to develop an improved shower handle for people with smaller hands, a pair of glasses with a mounted camera to help the visually impaired identify obstacles and an attached microphone to aid in voice recognition, [8] and has designed up to 28 other pieces of equipment or clothing. [7]

"Trekker"

During a speech Beskind gave to the Whitehouse, her message was “design with us, not for us”, which embodies her design philosophy. Beskind has lived in at least 3 different senior residences for at least 8 years, observing the spoken and unspoken needs of the elderly. During this time, she observed the misuse, premature use, and inappropriate use of the walker. Beskind noticed poor posture, abnormal gates, and pressure on the shoulders of those using walkers. In 2016, Beskind began work on a dynamic walker, [7] which she called the “trekker”, to address these pain points. The design features long, vertical handles, making it difficult to lean on the “trekker” and improving the user’s posture. [8] Although she has had limited success with the commercial version of this product, She claims this is her most vigorous design attempt. [7] For her personal use, Beskind uses a pair of $30 Costco ski poles with modified handles to reduce blister formation, a flashlight to help her visual impairment, and markers to differentiate between the left and right pole. [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Assistive technology</span> Assistive devices for people with disabilities

Assistive technology (AT) is a term for assistive, adaptive, and rehabilitative devices for people with disabilities and the elderly. Disabled people often have difficulty performing activities of daily living (ADLs) independently, or even with assistance. ADLs are self-care activities that include toileting, mobility (ambulation), eating, bathing, dressing, grooming, and personal device care. Assistive technology can ameliorate the effects of disabilities that limit the ability to perform ADLs. Assistive technology promotes greater independence by enabling people to perform tasks they were formerly unable to accomplish, or had great difficulty accomplishing, by providing enhancements to, or changing methods of interacting with, the technology needed to accomplish such tasks. For example, wheelchairs provide independent mobility for those who cannot walk, while assistive eating devices can enable people who cannot feed themselves to do so. Due to assistive technology, disabled people have an opportunity of a more positive and easygoing lifestyle, with an increase in "social participation", "security and control", and a greater chance to "reduce institutional costs without significantly increasing household expenses." In schools, assistive technology can be critical in allowing students with disabilities to access the general education curriculum. Students who experience challenges writing or keyboarding, for example, can use voice recognition software instead. Assistive technologies assist people who are recovering from strokes and people who have sustained injuries that affect their daily tasks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Occupational therapy</span> Healthcare profession

Occupational therapy (OT) is a healthcare profession that involves the use of assessment and intervention to develop, recover, or maintain the meaningful activities, or occupations, of individuals, groups, or communities. The field of OT consists of health care practitioners trained and educated to improve mental and physical performance. Occupational therapists specialize in teaching, educating, and supporting participation in any activity that occupies an individual's time. It is an independent health profession sometimes categorized as an allied health profession and consists of occupational therapists (OTs) and occupational therapy assistants (OTAs). While OTs and OTAs have different roles, they both work with people who want to improve their mental and or physical health, disabilities, injuries, or impairments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Macular edema</span> Medical condition

Macular edema occurs when fluid and protein deposits collect on or under the macula of the eye and causes it to thicken and swell (edema). The swelling may distort a person's central vision, because the macula holds tightly packed cones that provide sharp, clear, central vision to enable a person to see detail, form, and color that is directly in the centre of the field of view.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Macular degeneration</span> Medical condition associated with vision loss

Macular degeneration, also known as age-related macular degeneration, is a medical condition which may result in blurred or no vision in the center of the visual field. Early on there are often no symptoms. Over time, however, some people experience a gradual worsening of vision that may affect one or both eyes. While it does not result in complete blindness, loss of central vision can make it hard to recognize faces, drive, read, or perform other activities of daily life. Visual hallucinations may also occur.

The American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) is an American non-profit organization for people with vision loss. AFB's objectives include conducting research to advance change, promoting knowledge and understanding, and shaping policies and practices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Visual impairment</span> Decreased ability to see

Visual or vision impairment is the partial or total inability of visual perception. For the former and latter case, the terms low vision and blindness respectively are often used. In the absence of treatment such as corrective eyewear, assistive devices, and medical treatment – visual impairment may cause the individual difficulties with normal daily tasks including reading and walking. In addition to the various permanent conditions, fleeting temporary vision impairment, amaurosis fugax, may occur, and may indicate serious medical problems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biological effects of high-energy visible light</span> Blue-light toxicity

High-energy visible light is short-wave light in the violet/blue band from 400 to 450 nm in the visible spectrum, which has a number of purported negative biological effects, namely on circadian rhythm and retinal health, which can lead to age-related macular degeneration. Increasingly, blue blocking filters are being designed into glasses to avoid blue light's purported negative effects. However, there is no good evidence that filtering blue light with spectacles has any effect on eye health, eye strain, sleep quality or vision quality.

Empathic design is a user-centered design approach that pays attention to the user's feelings toward a product. The empathic design process is sometimes mistakenly referred to as empathetic design.

Stargardt disease is the most common inherited single-gene retinal disease. In terms of the first description of the disease, it follows an autosomal recessive inheritance pattern, which has been later linked to bi-allelic ABCA4 gene variants (STGD1). However, there are Stargardt-like diseases with mimicking phenotypes that are referred to as STGD3 and STGD4, and have a autosomal dominant inheritance due to defects with ELOVL4 or PROM1 genes, respectively. It is characterized by macular degeneration that begins in childhood, adolescence or adulthood, resulting in progressive loss of vision.

Ranibizumab, sold under the brand name Lucentis among others, is a monoclonal antibody fragment (Fab) created from the same parent mouse antibody as bevacizumab. It is an anti-angiogenic that is approved to treat the "wet" type of age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and macular edema due to branch retinal vein occlusion or central retinal vein occlusion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blurred vision</span> Medical condition

Blurred vision is an ocular symptom where vision becomes less precise and there is added difficulty to resolve fine details.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mobility aid</span>

A mobility aid is a device designed to assist walking or otherwise improve the mobility of people with a mobility impairment.

Aflibercept, sold under the brand names Eylea among others, is a medication used to treat wet macular degeneration and metastatic colorectal cancer. It was developed by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and is approved in the United States and the European Union.

Blind artists are people who are physically unable to see normally, yet work in the visual arts. This seeming contradiction is overcome when one understands that only around 10% of all people with blindness can see absolutely nothing at all. As such most blind people can in fact perceive some level of light and form, and it is by applying this limited vision that many blind artists create intelligible art. Also, a blind person may once have been fully sighted and yet simply lost part of their vision through injury or illness. Blind artists are able to offer insight into the study of blindness and the ways in which art can be perceived by the blind, in order to better improve art education for the visually impaired.

Sally Temple is an American developmental neuroscientist in Albany, New York. She is a co-founder and scientific director for The Neural Stem Cell Institute and is a professor of Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology at Albany Medical College Temple is also the principal investigator in her laboratory that focuses on neural stem cells and therapies for neurological-related disorders

Patricia Moore is an American industrial designer, gerontologist, and author. She is one of the founders of the universal design philosophy.

Geographic atrophy (GA), also known as atrophic age-related macular degeneration (AMD) or advanced dry AMD, is an advanced form of age-related macular degeneration that can result in the progressive and irreversible loss of retinal tissue (photoreceptors, retinal pigment epithelium, choriocapillaris) which can lead to a loss of visual function over time. It is estimated that GA affects over 5 million people worldwide and approximately 1 million patients in the US, which is similar to the prevalence of neovascular (wet) AMD, the other advanced form of the disease.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Haiyan Zhang</span> Designer and engineer

Haiyan Zhang is a designer and engineer. She is Director of Innovation at Microsoft Research and Technical Advisor to Lab Director, Christopher Bishop. She appeared on the BBC show "Big Life Fix".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alice Raftary</span> American educator

Alice Geisler Raftary was an American educator, based in Detroit, who specialized in education and rehabilitation for newly-blind adults.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Noriko Kamakura</span> Occupational therapist (1939–2023)

Noriko Kamakura:22 was a practitioner, researcher, and academic leader in occupational therapy. She was in the initial generation of people who became occupational therapists in Japan. She greatly influenced how occupational therapy developed in that country, contributing especially in clinical approaches to persons with central nervous disorders of executive functions. In addition, she explored function of the hand in enough detail to develop a system of taxonomies that can account for the vast majority of postures and movements of the hand.

References

  1. "Age Is Not The Limit Granny Achieves Her Dreams After 80years". Pulse.com.gh. 4 March 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Silicon Valley's 91-year-old designer". BBC. 7 September 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2018.
  3. 1 2 3 "Barbara Knickerbocker Beskind '45 | San Francisco". sf.syr.edu. Retrieved 2023-04-11.
  4. "Barbara Knickerbocker Beskind | CareLinx". www.carelinx.com. Retrieved 2023-04-11.
  5. "Lessons in leadership from a 92-year-old product designer | Stanford University School of Engineering". engineering.stanford.edu. 7 March 2016. Retrieved 2023-04-11.
  6. "Amazon.com: Barbara Knickerbocker: Books". www.amazon.com. Retrieved 2023-04-11.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Design Within Reach | Barbara Beskind , retrieved 2023-04-11
  8. 1 2 "Interview with Barbara Beskind, Inventor". VisionAware. Retrieved 2023-04-11.
  9. Linan, Steve (2017-01-26). "Blind at 92, Barbara Beskind is not your typical product designer". USC News. Retrieved 2023-04-11.