It's to help someone sit down and swing their legs over the ledge. For people who do have disabilities, new technology is bringing about hundreds of new products to help them remain independent. One of the modifications is this extra-wide staircase, with electrical outlets at the top and bottom of the stairs to plug in a chair lift, if necessary. One of the lab's major areas of research involves transportation. MIT is working with car makers to develop products that will enable seniors to drive better.
Nobody wants an older person's car that looks retrofitted.
Toyota is working with MIT to develop a small electric car to be marketed to residents of adult communities, so they can get around their immediate community more easily. In the health care field, entrepreneurs such as Alan Letzt and Steve Brown have come up with ways to help people better manage their home routines, from taking medications at the right time to remembering their daily exercise. Letzt, of Burke, Va., quit his job at a marketing and engineering firm nine years ago when his mother complained she couldn't remember which medications to take at which time of day. The result is Jerry the Pharmacist, which will be released in select pharmacies in Virginia and Ohio at the end of the year, and throughout the country early next year. It's the size of a pocket calculator and designed like a pager, beeping each time a pill needs to be taken.