Disabled No More

For anyone who has seen Peter Pan, you have seen Hook and his collection of different "hooks" or attachments for his hand. This idea might seem somewhat silly, but it is a great way to give someone the freedom to accomplish many tasks. Prosthetics are not the most advanced pieces of technology, and, although their are constantly improving, they are not perfect and cannot perform every task in the world with ease. For example, a person who might want to go kayaking but has lost a hand or arm could struggle with a normal prosthetic limb, since the prosthetic has limited mobility. However, a prosthetic specifically designed for kayaking or some other rowing activity could great improve the performance and ability of the prosthetic wearer (or amputee) to kayak. Many companies have caught on to this idea and have started to develop a plethora of prosthetic attachments which are specifically suited for certain actions. These actions could be as simple as needing to use a tool to fix a sink to archery or fishing. This website lists a good deal of different prosthetics which have been designed for different tasks.

The innovation of such devices has added a great deal of freedom to many amputees. To be honest, these prosthetics might be the best example of why medical research in technology is important. These prosthetics are a fairly simple idea and probably didn't take as much work or money to develop as other technologies, yet they have proved extremely beneficial. So, even your a skeptic about technologies that sound ridiculous and you therefore don't support funding, you might not realize that some technologies are simple and not ridiculous but still need funding and can have profound impacts.