As the baby boomers age, it’s expected that the number of Americans suffering from blindness will increase 70% by the year 2020. A new design and prototype for a prescription medicine pill bottle has been developed. It is intended to not only have universal appeal but also to fill the special needs for the currently more than 1.3 million Americans who are legally blind.
The new design features:
- A lid on “hinges” that flips open, and is, at the same time, child proof
- A small, anti-tip, rectangular bottle body that allows a user to easily reach in and pick out 1 or 2 pills
- One of 8 distinct textures on the bottle’s flip lid that corresponds with a different medication
- Medications differentiated by a different, deep-colored lid that those with limited vision can actually see when it is close to the eye
- A “fail-safe” audio button on the lid could be pressed for an audio statement on the medicinal contents
According to University of Cincinnati design student, Ashley Ma, a major advantage is the low-tech, simple, and inexpensive design, especially compared with currently available options for the visually impaired.
Ma explained, “Options that are currently on the market are more expensive and complex, dependent on technology and requiring a more expensive outlay on the part of the end user to purchase them.”
These options include a Wi-Fi connected prescription bottle cap that glows when it’s time to take medicine. Unfortunately, it does not operate where there is no wi-fi.
“There are a lot of great technology-based solutions on the market already, but those are out of reach for users who can’t afford the time or money to learn these systems. In fact, many of those we interviewed had to develop their own custom solutions – like rubber bands around a specific bottle – to meet their needs to differentiate medications,” said University of Cincinnati design student Alex Broerman. Yet, the needs of the users were often not met by these custom solutions, he added.
Ma concurred, “It was powerful to hear the stories of those we interviewed in the early stages of the design process. These consumers, many of them elderly, are paying hundreds of dollars more than their sighted counterparts in order to aurally differentiate their medications. So the challenge becomes to create the best solution for the most number of people at the lowest cost, and we’re pretty confident that we’ve achieved something like that with this project.”
Source: University of Cincinnati.