The first entry for the Blackwood Design Awards 2015 comes courtesy of Jason Mills from Ontario, Canada. Truly showing the global reach of Blackwood! 

Jason is a wheelchair user, therefore his innovation has developed due to necessity and understanding the underlying issues involved in the day-to-day life of a disabled person.

jamLift is a pneumatic lifting device to assist users to quickly and safely return to their pre-fallen state. Made of a durable and waterproof PVC plastic, jamLift has a series of inflatable air bladders with a sturdy, and removable, transfer board. It is a light, easy to set up solution to a problem faced by many; jamLift is designed to assist people suffering from a wide range of conditions.

We caught up with him and asked him a few questions about his design and product...

To what extent would you say that your own experiences were involved in this idea of yours? 

For quite some time I have been looking for a simple device to help me get back on my wheelchair after a fall. Transferring to and from the wheelchair presents high risk  - typically in the bathroom or getting in and out of bed; actually, anytime a transfer is attempted I am at risk of falling. 

My wife, who is my sole care giver, works full-time outside of the home, leaving me alone for several hours at a time. If I fell during this time, I would often have to wait for her to come home to assist me getting up. I would not call emergency services for several reasons; if I did call for help, providing that I could get to a phone, I might be pulling them away from a real emergency. I would need to have the door unlocked prior to calling them, avoiding having the door kick in and damaged. 

Another thing is that when you call 911 for assistance, you may get police, fire trucks and ambulance at your door - with all of your neighbours watching to see what’s going on. It’s bad enough that I fell and need help getting up, but now everybody in the neighbourhood knows too, that’s embarrassing. Another reason for trying to find a lifting device is the fact that we are both aging, and [my wife] will not be able to assist me in the future.

Did you think it would spark interest in others as much as it has? 
After an extensive search on the internet and not being able to find a suitable device I decided to design my own. 

After explaining my idea to others, it was suggested to me to contact some local senior resident homes to see what they do when a resident falls and to see how interested they would be in a device like this, if it became available. I was afraid of investing a lot of time and money into an idea if no-one wanted it. 

However, they invited me back when I had a demo for them to try and to order. This is when I hired a patent attorney to submit a patent application in both Canada and the US. I needed to have a name for my invention in order to be used on the patent application and could not think of a clever name, so I just used my initials Jason A Mills and added them to the word lift (because that’s what it does). 

What design stage is jamLift at? 

Recently a local community college, George Brown College, had added jamLIFT to their 2015 engineering program in order to develop a working proto-type. They lacked the skills, experience and equipment to develop jamLIFT into my current design; however, were able to provide a working proof of concept. 

We were also able to incorporate some discoveries into the final jamLIFT design. Since then the students have been asked to present their project to Ontario Center of Excellence, OCE Discovery. George Brown College attends OCE every year with our favourite research project deliverables. 

Will there be a working prototype soon? 

I’m currently in negotiations with the same company that built the proof for the college. Once they have received my latest design, I will have a working prototype following that.

How far do you think this product can reach? 

I think this product will have global appeal. When you think about it, every single person will fall; as we get older it will become harder to recover from a fall without assistance. There are also 2.2 million wheelchair users in the US, not to mention senior residence, hospitals, clinics and malls. Anywhere you find seniors or the disabled, there should be a jamLIFT.

How much will jamLift cost to buy? 

My thoughts are to try to keep costs as low as possible; without mass production the individual unit cost exceeds $1200. This price is crazy as the retail mark up still needs to be added on. One reason for this being so high is that the product is so time consuming to construct. Now if the build were located in, say China, where labour is much cheaper, then I would guess it would less than $300 in bulk.

What would winning the design award mean for jamLift? 

Winning a design award for jamLIFT would show two things: that sometimes the simplest approach is the best approach; and that products for the disabled should be designed by the disabled, for only we know what we really need. It will also give me some personal recognition of achievement.

You can see Jason talk about jamLift in the video below...

Like what you just read? Check out some more discussions on bespoken...

Interview with last year's winner

Blackwood Design Awards 2015 page

An interview with Neatebox creator Gavin Neate

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