The taps in her grandmother's home were out of reach, and Vianna Aiello wanted to change that.
Her grandmother uses a wheelchair, and the kitchen and bathroom taps made everyday tasks harder to do on her own. Aiello, an occupational therapy student in the University of Alberta's Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, visited her home and got to work designing an extender.
"It was the first design I ever made, and it means the most to me because it made such a difference in her life," she says.
That attention to the details of daily life drives Layer By Layer, the assistive devices club Aiello founded earlier this year. Students work with people to understand the barriers they face, then adapt or create devices to help them take part in activities that matter to them.
