Winners of the 39th Maddak Awards Competition for Innovative Product Design Announced at 2013 American Occupational Therapy Association Conference
Wayne, NJ (PRWEB) July 31, 2013 -- Every day, Occupational Therapists devise creative solutions for helping their clients improve and learn new skills. Often these solutions take the form of tangible items. Maddak Inc. recognizes and honors Occupational Therapist's ingenuity in developing new products with a design competition known as the Maddak Awards.
Winners of this year's annual competition for product design included a Sling Trap Softball Glove and a board game called FACEBOOKING.
Awards were presented at a breakfast sponsored by Maddak Inc. during the 2013 AOTA meeting held in San Diego, CA. Winners were selected by a panel of Occupational Therapists from the Local San Diego Conference Committee and conference attendees also were invited to submit votes for a 'People's Choice' award.
Jon Turnquist, OTR/L, MOL, ATP, Director of Assistive Technology Lab, St. Ambrose University, was awarded first place in the professional category for his Sling Trap Softball Glove. "The sling uses the force of the ball's inertia to pull together the sides of the glove to assist in closing the glove and in doing so reduces the rebound of the softball out of the glove," according to Turnquist. The inspiration for the glove was a young lady with cerebral palsy who has good mobility but lacks the speed to close her glove fast enough to trap the ball before it bounces out.
First place in the student category was awarded to students of Bay Path College and presented by Dr. Karen Sladyk. It is a simple to play board game called FACEBOOKING for 2-8 players. Dr. Sladyk told us, "the focus of the game is on learning the social skills needed to use Facebook safely and appropriately." A player tosses a die and then moves that number of spaces forward after correctly answering a cue card question. The answer is judged 'correct' or 'incorrect' by a group vote from the other players.
The People’s Choice award was presented to Justin Takeoka, a student at Samuel Merritt University, who devised a lock adapter to make battery removal from a wheelchair easier. Takeoka noted that "Originally, removal of the battery required that the user use one hand to simultaneously depress a thumb lever located on the battery while pulling up on the battery handle. The Wheelchair Battery Thumb Lever Lock separates the simultaneous actions into two independent tasks." The adaptive device locks the thumb lever into the depressed position allowing the user to concentrate their effort on pulling up on the battery handle.
A complete list of winners and their product innovations can be can be viewed on the Maddak website at: http://www.maddak.com/pages.php?page=awards_winners.
Preparations are already underway for the 40th Annual Maddak Award Competition which will be held during the April AOTA Conference in Baltimore, Maryland. For more information, see the AOTA website: http://www.aota.org.
About Maddak
Maddak Inc. manufactures products that simplify the tasks of daily living – eating, drinking, dressing, grooming, bathing, toileting, etc. – for seniors, people with disabilities and people undergoing rehabilitation. The company mission is to provide quality products that enable people to maximize their independence and remain active despite any limitations they may face. Marketed under the Ableware® brand name, the Maddak product line includes over 500 products sold through medical and hospital supply centers, pharmacies, homecare centers and internet outlets. Established in 1971, Maddak Inc., headquartered in Wayne, NJ is the largest U.S. manufacturer of assisstive devices, clinical modalities, home healthcare and rehabilitation products. For more information, visit http://www.maddak.com/.
Susan Tulanowski, Maddak Inc., http://www.maddak.com, (973) 628-7600 3291, [email protected]
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