Tableware for the disabled

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32637, 19 June 1971, Page 13

Tableware for the disabled

Crippled people are being helped back to normal feeding by a new plastic tableware. Hie designer spent three months at King’s College Hospital, London, studying their problems. He came to the conclusion that for people who cannot grip, ordinary cutlery and tableware are almost useless. So, with the co-operation of British Melaware Ltd he designed a completely new set to enable people who formerly had to be fed, now to feed themselves. As described in the 8.8. C. World Service programme “New Ideas,” the cutlery has thick, tapering handles to make it easy to grasp. The bowls of the spoons are set at right angles to the handles. This makes them easy to fill and allows them to be popped into the mouth without bending the wrist. The knife has a short rounded blade which will cut food either by slicing, or for one-handed people, by a simple up and down rocking movement. The, plates are oval and slope gently from one end to the other rather like a swimming pool. The deep end has an over-hanging edge so that food pushed against it by the right-angled spoon automatically falls over to fill the bowl. The beaker has no handle at all, but is lifted by slipping the hand into a wide slot right under the centre of gravity. The new tableware costs under £2.50 for two plates, a beaker, and knife, fork and spoon.