Oh I'm with you there 100% - I was so dependent on my parents when I had it to help me do relatively simple things. Even gripping a pen for a day at school was hard work! It makes you curse tins and jars, doesnt it!? Ironically, we need more people who have arthritis designing long life goods
The best packaging I've ever encountered is the Tetra-Pak type that the cat's food comes in. It's pre-folded and perforated across the top, so you fold it over each way, then it's wide enough to grip, so it tears off in one clean strip (or you cut it off with big scissors at the thinnest part of the crease), then a gentle press either side makes it pop open. And the sides are strong enough that you can fold it closed again and it fits on a fridge shelf perfectly. The most difficult bit is popping the envelope sides up, which you can do with a spoon handle, as the glue isn't too strong, there's a spoon handle-sized gap and it works every time if your fingers won't play ball.
Oh, that's a convoluted explanation.
These.
Lip service to disabilities annoys me. Great, you've put in a ramp. No, that doesn't mean you're done. And no, disabled people are not always going to be your customers/clients; they can just as easily be your staff. Try having a policy for them as well, eh? No, not just for sick leave or fire drills, I mean for how the office is laid out, where the milk and teabags are kept, don't forget the photocopier - where's the paper kept? Who loads it? Is there a tall stool beside it for longer repro jobs? A surface to wrangle reams of paper and their wrappers? Somewhere to hang their coat? What about your dress code - is that enforcing damaging footwear requirements?
Actually ask the disabled staff to have input from the outset, not when it's all decided and then they're seen as just being negative towards the project and the person responsible.
(This is my secondary specialist subject, as you can probably tell).
