User:SimplyWiki36/sandbox

Barbara Beskind is an American inventor and designer who wanted wanted to create things since she was a child. Beskind wanted to become an inventor but was told by her high school guidance counselor that women could not enroll in engineering courses. After a degree in home economics, she became an occupational therapist and served in the U.S. Army retiring as a major after 44 years. Beskind holds "six patents on inflatable devices that help children with balance issues."

In 2013, Beskind joined IDEO, the design firm which developed the first mouse for Apple. Beskind commutes by bus from her retirement community to IDEO's Palo Alto, California offices every Thursday. Beskind's work focuses on problems specific to the elderly. Her designs include "wearable airbags intended to help break falls and eyeglasses equipped with cameras and speakers to help users remember peoples’ names. Beskind herself suffers from macular degeneration, a vision condition, and many of her friends where she lives struggle with balance issues."

Beskind says: "I enjoy the age I'm in. I think it's one of the best chapters of my life. [Her advice for aging Baby Boomers is]: Embrace change and design for it."

Beskind designed a "trekker, a modified version of a walker, which is being developed into a prototype by IDEO."