A design for swimming

Ellen Harper gets people with restricted mobility swimming through inclusive design.

I'm Ellen Harper. I'm a masters student who is currently working at Poolpod, and I'm an engineer on a mission to get people swimming through inclusive design.

So an interesting project that I've been involved with is the work that I'm actually doing with Poolpod. So I started it as my fourth year final project and it's kind of snowballed on from there.

So what the Poolpod lift does is it allows the user to take a submersible wheelchair and take it into the pool so there's no awkward transfers anymore and it's a lift that can be used all by the user. They don't need other people to help them, and it just gives them all the independence that they need and confidence as well, and it just encourages people to go swimming more.

So seeing the reactions that you get from people when you give them this new independent access that they haven't had before is just so rewarding. They are so grateful for it, and it just makes all the hard work worth it. It makes me really happy to be an engineer.

I think the work that I do, especially with Poolpod, just to see peoples' reaction is just the most satisfying thing ever.