Hi #iQOO Fans,

We live in a world that's largely made for people who can see, hear, walk, and talk with little or no difficulty. However, we also live in a world where 1 billion people have some form of disability. Many times, these people need special adaptations in order to thrive in the world. But the cool thing is that many of the products or adaptations invented for people with disabilities end up being used and enjoyed by people of all abilities.

In case you're wondering what a curb cut is, you'll find out as it's one of the items in the following list of five. Some of these you encounter almost every day.

Typewriters / Keyboards

Everyone these days has at least one keyboard, but that wasn't always the case. The typewriter was the brainchild of an Italian inventor named Pellegrino Turri. He noticed that his friend, Countess Carolina Fantoni da Fivizzano, couldn't write letters by hand, due to her blindness. So, in 1608, he developed the first-ever incarnation of the typewriter, which involved keys and metal arms with raised characters. Turri also invented carbon paper as a way to provide ink for the machine. The typewriter has since morphed into the computer keyboard.

Electric Toothbrushes

Dental hygiene is important for everyone, but people with limited motor skills really struggled to keep their chompers clean in the early days. In 1954, however, the Broxodent electric toothbrush was created to help people with limited strength, mobility, and control do a better job of brushing.

It quickly became obvious that electric toothbrushes were superior to standard brushes, so now most dentists encourage everyone to use them. In fact, a 2019 study found that people who use electric versions keep their teeth longer, have less tooth decay, and enjoy healthier gums.

Speech to text and Voice Recognition Apps

The reason for invention was to give people who couldn't physically write access to getting their thoughts and words down "on paper," so to speak. Software invented in the 1990's allowed users to create written documents and save and open them simply with their voices. Later versions were created specifically for people working in courtrooms or as medical transcriptionists. Later, it is used in virtual assistants, military systems, car navigation/entertainment systems, and home automation.

Fidget Spinners

This toy was all the rage back in 2017, and every kid had to have one. A fidget spinner is a device with three paddle-shaped blades around a circle with bearings in the middle that you spin to calm yourself down or to increase concentration.

Engineer Catherine Hettinger originally invented it as a gadget to entertain her 7-year-old daughter back in 1993, but sadly let the patent lapse as she didn't have the money to keep renewing it. So, she didn't get rich off the huge craze.

In the early 2000s, manufacturers began promoting these gadgets as a way to help calm people with autism, ADHD, and anxiety disorders. Although studies did not confirm that they helped people with these conditions, by 2017, lots of people, whether stressed-out business executives or bored schoolchildren, were enjoying spinning the "fidgets" for fun. Fidget spinners were even banned from some school districts for being, ironically, a distraction.

Bendy Straws

Although the straight paper straw was a marvel all in itself when it was created in 1888, in the 1930s a man named Joseph Friedman tweaked the design to make drinking straws bend in the middle. He came up with the idea when he noted his petite daughter's inability to enjoy her milkshake at a soda fountain while using the straight variety.

He put a screw inside a straight straw and wrapped some dental floss around it to create a corrugated effect. Although this tool wasn't originally created for people with disabilities, hospitals were some of the first places to embrace them as they were helpful to bed-ridden patients trying to drink something. Everyone loves bendy straws now.

Source: I read an article in Readers Digest and created this post and took all the details from wikipedia.

I hope this thread was informative. I'll catch you soon with another topic. Do share your opinons below in the comments section.

Regards,

Sharon Anto