Full disclosure, this is sort of market research but it's for an accessibility thing.

Hey so if you had an idea walking-into-the-house area, like a mudroom, and you could have a table/storage area/catch-all there, think about it.

Now, please reblog and tell me the following (in the reblog or in the :

Table? Closet? Trash can lol? What do you envision as a thing near your entry door that would help you, as someone who isn't NT, function in your life?

How big is it? Length, width, depth, height. Preferably in feet or inches, but I can work in centimeters.

Do you put your keys, mail, phone, purse, wallet, backpack, or something else there? What? Always or just sometimes?

Do you hang your keys there instead? Your jacket? Heavy stuff?

Do you have a change jar there to put the day's loose change?

What would you keep in that area for your convenience? Shoes, keys, stamps, pens, purse/bags, everyday makeup, phone charger, kleenex?

Would this area have a mirror installed? Would there be a trash can or a dirty clothes hamper?

If you could aquire items to make this area more accessible for you, what would that look like? Cane holder? Chair charger? Crutch rest? Etc.

If you could give me this info I would super appreciate it, I'm trying to design some stuff that would, hopefully, for a low cost, make things easier for people like us.

Hey is there an accessibility aid you wish existed? Something that you struggle with that could be made easier with an analogue or digital device? Want to let some engineering students take a crack at making it?

I’m a first year engineering student taking a projects class and my team has been tasked with making ~something~ and I thought this was a good opportunity to ask folks if there was anything that needed to be made! We’ll be designing, prototyping, and creating the device this summer and we have access to a bunch of really cool tools and technology to do it.

Some things this class has made in the past include: glasses for the visually impaired that would detect things like tree branches in front of you, a robotic arm that could be attached to a wheelchair to swing a baseball bat, a stim desk for autistic students and more! There’s no guarantee that what we make will actually work or be usable but if we do pull it off I’d be happy to try and get it to whoever suggested it! 

beak prosthetics are a real thing, actually! many a bird has been rescued with a severely damaged or deformed beak and had it replaced with a prosthetic. eagles, parrots, ducks, toucans, etc. it happens! which means it's easy to get the info you need.

now, irl, these are usually made of plastic, especially with 3d printing being available. but lightweight carved wood or thin metal sheets could also work fine, I think, if plastic is not available in your worldbuilding.

here's an article that shows detailed images of a parrot getting a prosthetic beak in this case, metal rods were inserted into the remnant of the original beak and used to glue the resin prosthetic into place with an extremely strong glue. similar methods have been used for other birds in need of a new beak.

it shouldn't need to be washed the way dentures are, but a simple wash now and again is probably fine. depending on the type of beak, it may also wear down a lot over time and need to be replaced. for example, parrot beaks keep growing as they wear down, but a prosthetic beak can't grow.

birds with prosthetic beaks are unable to live in the wild, but luckily bird people don't have to worry about that. instead of a permanently attached prosthetic, they might instead have a strap keeping the prosthetic in place, wrapping around the head. depends on personal preference.

as for problems with a broken beak, i don't think speaking will be as much of a problem. birds don't use their beaks for most of their vocalizations! eating is obviously more difficult with a broken beak, but i think the biggest problem would be an inability to preen one's feathers. they'd have to rely more on companions to do it for them. assuming your bird people still use their beaks for at least some of their preening.

Yesterday I went to go see Wicked on tour with my parents, one of which is hard of hearing. She doesn’t like going to theaters (both live theater and movie theaters) because she’s never able to follow what’s happening but she went because she wanted to make me happy. She ended up deciding to leave after act 1 because she wasn’t enjoying it since she couldn’t understand what was being said (it didn’t help that the seats were very poorly set up she people’s heads basically blocked the entire stage). When she went to leave and was asked why and told them it was because she couldn’t hear what was being said, they told her “oh, well there’s headphones you can get before the show!”. Of course at this point it’s too late and she ended up just sitting in the lobby for the rest of the show.

After the show we decided to go to their website to see what accommodations they had, and it took forever to even get to the page about them. It shouldn’t be that hard for someone to access the accommodations you provide. We’ve attended multiple shows at this theater and never once have we seen a sign or anything else letting us know what kind of accommodations they had. Even something as simple as a pop up when purchasing tickets that says “Does anyone in your party require visual, auditory, sensory or other accommodations?” And list what’s available. There’s already a popup letting you know if your seats arnt wheelchair accessible, so why not add this too?

We’ve had similar experiences with movie theaters where we’ve only recently learned about those captioning systems that go in your cupholder. Before than all we knew about where the headphones that only worked about 50% of the time (half the time you were lucky if they were even charged). Why have accessibility options when you’re not even going to offer them to those who might need it.