A while back, I was asked to come up with footage to document how my prosthetic hook would work (or not work) when handling an iron and when ironing shirts [link].

It was then a question whether re-design of an iron would help people with prosthetic hooks. I have no idea why they restricted the research for industrial design to hooks. After all, there are far more people that live with one functioning hand after, say, strokes or paralysis than there are amputees.

Since then I started to trouble shoot the situation myself and found that with my steaming iron (regular plastic body steam iron), (a) the grip that was made of hard plastic also slipped out of my (non-disabled) hand, particularly when I was not paying attention, mostly because using the left hand for me is still awkward, (b) the iron was heavy no matter what hand or hook I was lifting it with, (c) its plastic housing broke when it fell because it was not built to last.

So here is my usual type of steaming iron featuring around 1,5 kg of weight (with a full tank), plastic housing and a hard plastic grip.

My new iron has a separate tank that contains a lot more water. It has a separate electricity unit that is stored with the tank. The iron itself is a metal piece (very sturdy) that contains a cork grip (not slippery) and its weight is about 970 grams.

Thanks consumer iron selling industry. Thanks for offering such a range of products. I was now able to pick a suitable model for me without having to resort to insurance, without resorting to manual imports that slow me down and that comes with sick prices. This is what I call enabling people. I really appreciate that.