Gardening offers physical, mental, and nutritional benefits, but those with limited arm mobility—such as amputees, arthritis patients, or stroke survivors—face significant barriers due to standard tools requiring two functional hands. While existing adaptive solutions help with basic gripping, they often still rely on partial hand function, leaving a gap for those with more severe mobility limitations.

A System for Inclusive Gardening

One way to address this could be by developing a specialized toolkit designed for operation with feet, mouth, or other body parts, combined with techniques to adapt garden setups. This might include:

• Foot-operated tools with elongated, angled handles for digging or planting
• Mouth grips for precision tasks like seeding, made from medical-grade materials
• Modular workstations allowing seated or ground-level access
• Instructional guides and videos on adapting existing gardens

The approach would differ from general disability tools by focusing specifically on gardening workflows, and from hand-centric adaptive tools by removing the need for grip strength entirely.

Validating the Need and Approach

Before full development, initial steps could involve:

1. Interviewing occupational therapists and potential users to pinpoint pain points in existing solutions
2. Creating low-cost prototypes by modifying existing tools for foot/mouth use
3. Testing these with a small group to assess practicality and gather feedback

This phased approach helps verify assumptions about demand, usability, and cost feasibility before committing to manufacturing.

Potential for Wider Impact

Beyond individual users, such a system could benefit rehabilitation clinics, community gardens, and disability advocates. By partnering with manufacturers of existing assistive devices, production costs might be minimized. Revenue could come from direct sales, training workshops for therapists, or licensing designs to established garden tool companies.

While challenges like accommodating diverse ability levels exist, a modular design approach might allow customization. This project would fill an important niche, as no current solution fully bridges gardening accessibility for those without hand function.