Adaptive carryall LapSnap aims to make shopping easy for wheelchair users

Shopping for many wheelchair users is a challenge. Carrying multiple bags or items while manoeuvring a wheelchair is not easy. LapSnap, a versatile, adaptive carryall, aims to address this. LapSnap is the creation of product design company Includesign that is on a mission to empower disabled people around the world.

Carrying your handbag and multiple other bags with groceries, vegetables and clothes is hard for anyone. Juggling all of this and manoeuvring a wheelchair is an even bigger challenge for many wheelchair users. LapSnap aims to address the challenges of shopping for wheelchair users.

LapSnap is a versatile, adaptive carryall designed by Includesign, a product design company on a mission to empower disabled people around the world. The company wants is to create an environment where disabled people are not an afterthought in the design process but the first to be consulted.

Independent shopping for wheelchair users

LapSnap’s innovative design allows wheelchair users to carry items hands-free. It was developed to make grocery shopping easier for wheelchair users but LapSnap is useful for multiple tasks besides shopping like laundry, gardening, cleaning, and going to school or work.

People seem to love the LapSnap. Includesign launched a Kickstarter campaign to introduce the public to the LapSnap and reached its funding goal in just one week. This will fund the first commercially manufactured run of the product, which will be available in December 2021.

We have tested the LapSnap with wheelchair users around the United States, and the feedback has been extremely positive. Everyone uses it differently, but no matter what they use it for, the LapSnap is helping wheelchair users live easier, more independent lives. – Diana Perkins, Founder-CEO, Includesign

The response to LapSnap has reaffirmed Includesign’s commitment to make more products to address the problems that disabled people face.

“I have been independently shopping and doing chores for all my adult life, and I learned to ‘make do’ with the inconveniences of having to carry things one-handedly, while controlling my wheelchair with my other hand”, says Olivia A, a wheelchair user from California, United States. “But, upon using LapSnap, there was a sense of relief and freedom having a convenient platform attached to me that makes it easier to shop and do household chores. When I would go shopping with my niece, I always had to rely on her to carry the shopping basket or push the shopping cart for me. The last time we went shopping, I brought the LapSnap with us. I was able to return the favour and carry items for both of us! It definitely boosted my independence.”

Assists wheelchair users with daily tasks

The LapSnap, which is a patent-pending product, is light in weight and designed to rest comfortably on wheelchair users’ laps as they go about shopping or perform their daily routines. It is made with high-quality, durable materials, like waterproof fabric. It comes with a versatile strap that ensures the LapSnap stays balanced as users manoeuvre their wheelchairs. It can be fixed behind the back, under the legs, or through the arms of the wheelchair. There’s a padded base that makes it comfortable to use.

The LapSnap is roughly the size of a traditional shopping basket and is compatible with most adult wheelchairs. It is collapsible, so it can be stored compactly and transported easily when not in use.

Lucy R, a wheelchair user has used LapSnap to carry clothes, pillows, bags, food, toys, books, makeup, bathroom products, medications, and even her dog! “You can use the LapSnap to hold anything you need and take it anywhere you’d like”, she says.

The LapSnapTM began as a school project to help a beloved professor. While taking their senior engineering capstone course at Brown University in 2019, Diana Perkins, Chloe Rosenberg, and Hannah Mintz invented the LapSnap by working directly with wheelchair users. They went on to establish includesign LLC in 2020.

In the near future, Includesign intends to develop a smaller version of the LapSnap for children and for people who use a walker.

Watch in Sign Language

Also Read:

• Latest Dungeons & Dragons book to feature its first wheelchair accessible dungeon