Rather than taking a look at well explored impairments, our group was rather inspired to take a look at something different. What we decided to investigate was the impairment of the sense of smell. Specifically we want to focus on non-congenital (i.e. acquired) hyposmia and anosmia, the decreased ability to smell and lack of ability to smell respectively. For brevity’s sake we will use the term anosmia. The major but non-obvious problem that we want to explore is how to help those with olfactory impairments with regards to cooking. Our first step of course was to look at the impairment itself, which after some research was actually a fair bit more common than we thought.
It is far easier to identify a blind person with his cane, a deaf person with sign language, a physically impaired person with his wheelchair and so on. People with anosmia have no such visible nor obvious aids. Because of this people with anosmia are often subjected to a different kind of social isolation. Many find their impairment awkward and difficult to explain. One cannot simply turn off their sense of smell to try and experience a little of what a person with anosmia would. This makes it harder to understand the kind of trouble a person with anosmia has and harder to relate to as well. Anosmia also affects their quality of life.
The sense of smell is strongly connected to the sense of taste and the lack of the former would affect the latter. It also poses a danger to themselves and others, like when it comes to detecting the smell of smoke or harmful chemicals. With respect to cooking, a skewed sense of taste and the inability to smell burning or rotten food is dangerous in it’s own ways. For the former, the change in preference with regards to the taste of the food can lead to an imbalanced or improper diet. The latter is a fire safety and health hazard.
Anosmia has a variety of causes, among them but not limited to are Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, old age, head trauma, nasal polyps, allergies, the common cold, smoking and poisoning. The most common treatment for anosmia is through use of medication. Medication is a temporary solution and sometimes is not effective, further throwing of the sense of smell. Thus the next step of our project is to find ways in which to aid those with anosmia in the kitchen and ensure their safety and health through design. Whether they are feasible or useful at all remains to be seen.
Project Members: Rathakan Leepraphantkul, Nur Gadima
Non-excluding Design 