I can make a hot cup of tea for my friends & I am Blind!
To enable a blind man to make a hot cup of tea with milk without assistance.
The solution
On visiting it was found that the client was already using a “one cup” hot water dispenser made by Breville. (Model VKT124)
“one cup” hot water dispenser made by Breville.
This fills a mug with hot water with room for milk if needed. He was also using a standard RNIB level indicator to overcome what he saw as the problem of the water level coming to different heights in different sized mugs. He wanted the dispenser to stop delivering water at a set distance from the top of the mug.
The water dispenser delivers a constant volume of water, and the RNIB device is clearly not sending signals to the water dispenser, so this was not going to work, and he had to be persuaded to get a set of similar mugs which all then came to the same water level, with an allowance for milk. This meant the RNIB indicator was no longer necessary.
This left the problem of how to add the correct quantity of milk to the tea or coffee. After some head scratching the simple solution of using an appropriately sized syringe to draw up the milk from a jug and “injecting” it into the beverage.
Picture 2 – Milk filled syringe
The benefit
The Blind man was able to make a cup of tea independently for himself and his friends.
- Skills involved:
- Issues Addresses:
- Activities Helped:
- Location:
- Solution:
Hi Barbara,
This comment may be too late, but you can get a Breville HotCup which also has an adjustable dispense dial to allow for smaller and bigger mugs. Both the standard HotCup and the variable dispense models lift off the base and fill like a standard kettle under the tap, or can be filled with a jug (and a funnel if this is difficult). If your dad has any residual vision, he could use that to determine the fill level, or use weight/sound to know when it is full enough. Otherwise he could keep track of what goes in and out. A vision rehabilitation specialist from your local social services department, or local sight loss charity should be able to help dad work out what solution works best for him. Hope this helps.
Hi, I am looking at purchasing one of these for my Dad who is blind but I can’t see how he could easily fill the dispenser with the right amount of water or tell when it was running low. Is it possible to find out tips for doing this?
Hi Barbara, our items are actually created bespoke free of charge, so they’re not available for sale. If you complete our referral form however, then we’ll be able to find out if we can help. As each item is custom-made for the individual, then hopefully we could also find a solution to these challenges you’ve mentioned your dad might have: https://remap.org.uk/referral-form/