Design concepts to help people with disabilities, developed by apprentices at engineering training centre Oxfordshire Advanced Skills, were revealed at the final of the Emma Wiggs Challenge. Double Paralympic champion Emma Wiggs MBE, who launched the competition earlier this year, was one of the judges who assessed the entries, which aimed to show how design engineering can be used to improve life for people with disabilities.

The winning entry was a low-level pull cord assistance device (LLPCAD) designed by Owen Mayers, to tackle the critical safety issue of unreliable and inaccessible emergency pull cords in disabled toilets. Owen’s solution is a cost-effective device, designed for easy installation or retrofitting in most locations. The highly commended finalist was the Scooter Buddy, a cost-effective, portable product that is suitable for storagein a chair bag or rucksack, designed by the team of Ryan Budd, Matt Chambers and Ben Hibberd.
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