CVS Pharmacy and Michael Graves Design are now teaming up on a direct-to-market line of home health care products that will build on the legacy of inclusive design beget by its namesake in the inspiring last decade of his life and career.
The initial round of products focuses on bathroom safety and mobility aids and includes a foldable cane, travel walker, shower chair, 3-in-1 commode, and raised toilet seats each based around philosophies of the Design for All movement which the architect helped create.
In order to get the best possible input and consumer feedback from users of the products and their caregivers, the firm undertook a comprehensive ethnography study along the east coast that provided extremely valuable insights into a too-often overlooked area of home product design.
“This product actually gives people the feeling that, hey, somebody out there cares about us, they’re looking for ways for us to feel better, more comfortable, and less embarrassed,” one surveyed user shared. “[It] gives people the sense that someone is trying to make things better.”
“Patients are often intimidated by the way DME products look,” explained a caregiver who participated in the research group. “They’re not used to having that type of device in their shower. Having it more aesthetically pleasing like a chair would be more appealing. It would make my job absolutely easier for [my clients] to adjust to this new normal.”
All six designs are available in stores and online now and will be followed later in the year by additional products. Design Principal Donald Strum spoke to the personal meaningfulness of the collaboration, stating that its execution “realizes our decade-long vision of elevating the quality and dignity that consumers should expect within the home health care category,” and adding that the firm is “thrilled by the collaboration and the powerful change it will bring to disabled people, elders, and the people who provide care for all of us.”
2 Comments
I love CVS that is all.
I mean seriously I know they are a corporate overlord but when they stopped selling cigarettes they move towards focusing on actual health, and when they stated publicly that they will not allow pharmacists to deny birth control prescriptions, they just seem like a corporation who is actually trying to do good in society.
Nah, they're just as shit as the rest. Overpriced "groceries" in food deserts, monopolies that negotiate with insurance companies to require your prescription be filled ONLY at CVS, fuck you if you're surrounded by the other two monopoly wannabes, walgreens and rite-aid, then pull out of markets, leaving people to have to go farther than they can tro get necessary meds. The walmart of pharmacies can go get fucked. Not selling things that actively kill you should not even be a bar they need to clear. It shouldn't even be a fucking painted line on a flat sidewalk, so they get zero credit from me for that PR bullshit.
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