Dear World,

We live in world that enables the able-bodied to tread easily with little physical resistance. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for those with disabilities. This reality frequently leaves individuals from the disabled community, such as amputees, unable to move freely. The barriers they face are often infrastructural, and sometimes include a lack of access to tools that facilitate movement.

For the purpose of this daily prompt, my focus is on amputees.

I don’t profess to know the ins and outs of accessibility for the target audience. However, I can proudly point towards an invention within my lifetime that helps to ease that lack of access issue.

Now, I don’t know if I’d say it’s the most important invention in my lifetime, but it’s abso-freaking-lutely awesome and is important within the context of access and equity.

I’m talking about the JaipurKnee prosthetic, a cost-effective prosthesis knee. Developed by Jamaican, Joel Sadler alongside American, Eric Thorsell. The device’s genesis began as a class project in January 2008 when he and Thorsell sat a course in biomedical device design as part of their Master’s degree programme.

They visited India and observed amputees in clinics being fitted with artificial limbs. They met 17-year-old Kamal, an amputee with whom they worked closely to improve the device.

For the next two years or so, prototyping and testing occurred to fine-tune the device. The end result was a stable, low-cost artificial knee containing just five high-performance plastic parts, and four nuts and bolts.

For brevity, I cut quite a bit out of this story. However, the point stands that this invention is top tier and among the most important within my lifetime – so much so that it was listed on Time Magazine’s top 50 inventions of 2009.

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A quick life lesson here is that every person should have equal access to traverse the world we live in. If we have the intellect and resources to achieve that level of equity, we should work to achieve it.

Big up to Joel and Eric wherever they are in the world.

Your turn, what’s the most important invention in your lifetime?

Signed,

The Suburban Girl JA®