A disability can happen at any age caused by accidents, illnesses, birth injuries, aging, etc. A disability affects how a person’s body or mind works and may limit what the person can do. A person can have more than one disability. Disabilities may be permanent or temporary.

Meal preparation can be both physically and mentally demanding, so having a disability can make cooking difficult. When choosing assistive technology for cooking, it is important to understand the person’s specific disability issues and how they affect meal preparation. Examples of functional limitations and their effect on cooking include:

Physical Limitations

Problems with strength, coordination, joint stiffness, missing or non-functional arm/leg, endurance, fatigue, mobility/walking, balance and chronic pain.

  • In the kitchen, these limitations can make it difficult to reach, bend, and carry items, hold and use cooking utensils, operate appliance controls, open food packages, and work from a standing position.

Sensory Issues

These challenges can include vision and hearing loss, decreased sense of touch, environmental sensitivities to light, noise, odors.

  • Vision issues can make it hard to see and read recipes and food labels, set and adjust the controls on appliances, know when food is properly cooked, find kitchen items and identify dangerous situations.
  • Hearing loss can make it difficult or impossible to hear timers and appliance alerts to know when food is ready.
  • Impaired sensation in the hands may put a person at greater risk for burns, cuts, dropping or spilling things.

Learning and Cognitive Challenges

These challenges can include memory, organization, following instructions, attention span, distractibility, reading level and judgment.

  • In the kitchen, learning and cognitive challenges can make it difficult to read, understand and follow the steps in a recipe, maintain focus to complete the activity, remember what comes next, solve unexpected problems, or use good judgment to avoid dangerous situations.

Communication Issues

These challenges can include speaking face to face, talking on the phone, writing/emailing and texting.

  • In the kitchen or when shopping, people who cannot speak or speak clearly enough to be understood may have difficulty asking for assistance or getting help in an emergency.

Assistive technology tools for the kitchen help individuals with disabilities overcome these limitations by enhancing the person’s existing abilities (example: enlarging print so that a person can use their remaining vision to read) or by compensating/modifying for the missing function (example: substituting flashing lights or vibration to alert a deaf person to sounds).

Keep in mind that an assistive technology product that was created for one disability may also be useful for other disabilities as well. For example, a talking thermometer designed for people with vision loss may also be very helpful to persons with cognitive difficulties.

Importantly, the use of AT tools should be combined with alternative methods, techniques, and strategies for getting the task done as independently and safely as possible.