Elderly Challenge - Observation 1

I have observed that the elderly with walking aids have problems such as climbing the stairs, which we do very easily. As the elderly is climbing the stairs with the walking aid, they have to take note of certain concepts, which are very hard to grasp unless given the patience. For example, given that the elderly has one bad leg, the concept up with the good and down with the bad. What the phrase means is that while walking with a walking aid, the good leg must be lifted and put forward first, then lifting the walking aid and putting all the pressure in the walking aid. As all the pressure is put on the aid, the elderly has to lift their bad leg.


In the photo, you can see that my friend Ilya has tried to walk a mile in their shoes, through simulation. He is having a lot of difficulty just walking with the walking aid and imagine doing this everyday.

We had to try walking with the walking aid ourselves, and it was no easy feat. To simulate the bad leg, we had to put a plastic bottle under our feet and must not put pressure to that leg at all, if the plastic bottle cracks one bit, we would be hurting our imaginary bad leg. Climbing the stairs will make this feat a whole lot harder.


In this photo, my grandpa can be seen playing air hockey, facing all the challenges an 80 year old man faces, he is still able to win the match with one hand in his pocket. Hopefully in the future, I want to be just as healthy as him. I hope that by identifying the problems and coming with suitable solutions, I can make life better for my grandpa.