Barbara Beskind

Barbara M. Knickerbocker Beskind (born 1924) is an American inventor and designer.

Early education and career
Barbara Beskind grew up during the great depression, leading her family to grow their own food and make their own clothes. From the age of 10, Barbara had aspirations of becoming an inventor, however she was told by her vocational advisor that engineering schools did not accept women, leading her to the field of home economics. She first attended Green Mountain Junior College in Vermont, but transferred to Syracuse University in 1943. In 1945, she graduated from The Home Economics school of Syracuse University where she studied Applied Arts and Design. For 2 years while at Syracuse, she volunteered as an occupational therapist, eventually leading her to a 20 year long career as an occupational therapist for the Army. After retiring from the army, she opened the Princeton Center for Learning Disorders, the first independent practice in occupational therapy in the United States. She retired in 1989 with six patents, including an inflated square pillow for children with learning disabilities to play with, protected while they improve their sense of balance., although none achieved. Following her retirement, she continued to study non-fiction writing, doing three summer courses at Bennington college and studying at Lebanon college for six semesters. She has since published three books under her maiden name, Barbara Knickerbocker: Barbara Knickerbocker: an historical family autobiography, Powderkeg; a book of her art and poetry, Touches of Life in Time and Space; and an historical fiction, Flax to Freedom. Barbara takes great care of her health, stating in January 2020 that she takes no prescription medicine and goes to a fitness center for at least 2 hours, 3 times per week, although she suffers from macular degeneration causing her to be legally blind.

IDEO
In 2013, 89 year old Barbara Beskind saw IDEO founder, David Kelley speak on 60 Minutes about the importance of diversity of experience among team members to develop new products and services. She typed a letter to the company, as she is unable to use computers due to her macular degeneration, offering to help design products for aging and low-vision populations. Within a week, IDEO invited her to tell her story to executives at the company. She then became an adviser for equipment and designing products and services for the elderly and the low-vision community. With IDEO, she has worked to develop an improved shower handle for people with smaller hands, a pair of glasses with a mounted camera to help the visually impaired identify obstacles and an attached microphone to aid in voice recognition, and has designed up to 28 other pieces of equipment or clothing.

"Trekker"
During a speech Beskind gave to the Whitehouse, her message was “design with us, not for us”, which embodies her design philosophy. Beskind has lived in at least 3 different senior residences for at least 8 years, observing the spoken and unspoken needs of the elderly. During this time, she observed the misuse, premature use, and inappropriate use of the walker. Beskind noticed poor posture, abnormal gates, and pressure on the shoulders of those using walkers. In 2016, Beskind began work on a dynamic walker, which she called the “trekker”, to address these pain points. The design features long, vertical handles, making it difficult to lean on the “trekker” and improving the user’s posture. Although she has had limited success with the commercial version of this product, She claims this is her most vigorous design attempt. For her personal use, Beskind uses a pair of $30 Costco ski poles with modified handles to reduce blister formation, a flashlight to help her visual impairment, and markers to differentiate between the left and right pole.