Assisted Living

Introduction and purpose for these pages

Millions of humans have some needs for devices that offer assistance or support for seeing, hearing, movement of all kinds, and more.Such needs may be temporary, while healing from an injury for example, but other needs can last a lifetime. There are more and more technologies offered that can help, but too often finding an appropriate and affordable solution is very difficult for potential users and their care givers or support persons. This page is intended to help provide that support by including what Appropedia Users think of as the best assistive devices, for every kind of need for people in their living situations.

Listings here should be understood to be offered with the idea that others might find the information useful. Every reader should be checking for themselves and their colleagues, to make sure that each device or technology is going to be useful for any family member, friend, or acquaintance who might be in need of any assisted living function. Listing here does not imply endorsement by Appropedia. Each listing is offered by the contributors with the idea that these pages might eventually help many others to quickly and easily find the best opportunities for us to help one another, in the spirit of community building.

Editors Note: DISCLAIMER: Information about commercially available products and services is for educational purposes only at this point. Readers are responsible to conduct their own research before entering into relationships with any of the companies iisted here.

Editors can consider in the future defining criteria that can be added to listings, to ascertain whether and how consumer protections for commercial product and service offerings might lead to formal endorsement, based on a comprehensive set of assurances from listed equipment vendors and service providers.

The plan here is to generate a comprehesive list of topics, and then create one page per topic (or, small group of topics), into which users can include information about best available practices, techniques, and technologies, and mini-case-studies about how their use is helping. This is a preliminary list of topics. Please add more details. Also, for those practices, techniques, and technologies that are applied at the larger scale of neighborhoods, villages, cities, and regions, please check for similar ideas listed as Adapting Communities for All Abilities.

• For people who need supplemental Oxygen.
  • Open source oxygen generator.
• For exercising lungs and breathing:
  • Breathe book.
  • O-pep devices
  • more

• Doorbells for hearing impaired
• Over the counter hearing aids
• Hearing Aid Innovations:
  • https://www.halcyonhouse.org/venture/deaftronics-pty-ltd/ -- Solar powered battery charging for long-long lasting hearing aid batteries.
• Cell-phone apps for hearing impaired
  • CaptionCall (free use in U.S.)
• Landline telephone instruments for hearing impaired
• Visual conversation transcribing using cell phones, tablets, and computers
  • See Hear app for iPhone and iOS devices
  • Google Live Transcribe for android devices

• CallToU company. https://www.calltou.com/
• Step2Health company. https://step2health.com/
  • Step2Bed: movable/adjustable bed rails for those who need help with getting out of bed. Adjustable-height step stool with LED light, for fall prevention. A portable medical step stool comes with grab-bars, making it easy and safer to get into and out of bed.
  • Step2Tub: similar system for entering and exiting bathtubs.

Here is the beginning of an Appropedia page dedicated to Last-Mile Transportation Options for Users of All Differing Abilities.

• American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) Home Fit Guide, about making homes "comfortable, safe and a great fit for older adults — and people of all ages." https://www.aarp.org/livable-communities/housing/info-2020/homefit-guide.html
• This company is working on general medical care equipment. https://www.halcyonhouse.org/venture/biodesign-innovation-labs/
• R.L. Mace Universal Design Institute. https://www.udinstitute.org/

• Adapting Communities for All Abilities
• Last-Mile Transportation Options for Users of All Differing Abilities