UL graduate turns lived experience into innovation with an inclusive device

When Leah Shanahan discovered that blind and visually impaired women were excluded from one of life’s most intimate moments – finding out that they are pregnant – she set out to change that.

The new University of Limerick Product Design and Technology graduate has designed the world’s first fully accessible, multisensory pregnancy test. The Tralee woman was one of 3,678 students who graduated from University of Limerick last week.

Inspired by personal experience as a visually impaired woman and driven by the blind women she met throughout the design process, Leah’s design is the first saliva-based, reusable, accessible pregnancy test to deliver results through touch, sight, and sound.

‘AMY’ addresses a practical healthcare challenge through user-centred design with inclusivity at the heart of the product.
When Leah realised that blind and visually impaired women were the only group excluded from the intimate moment of discovering their own pregnancy, she was driven to find a better solution, and AMY was born.

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“I wanted to create a product that restores independence and dignity in this experience, using my skills in design and my understanding of accessibility to make a real difference,” Leah explained.

The reader uses photosensor technology, similar to that found in digital pregnancy tests. A raised plus or minus symbol on the reader can be felt by touch. It also includes a feature that allows users to tap their phone to open a webpage where they will view a bold red or green symbol along with large, high-contrast text for those who are partially sighted, and users can also choose to hear the result aloud.

Through its considered design, Leah hopes that AMY will help to restore privacy and independence to blind and visually impaired women during the testing process. The multisensory approach ensures that users with different levels of vision or additional disabilities can independently access their results with confidence and dignity.

Leah’s parents discovered that she was visually impaired when she was four years old. “I was born with sight in only one eye, and it wasn’t until I was four years old and I asked my mom which eye was her ‘bad eye’ that we found out I was legally blind in one of my eyes,” she recalled.

“I have poor peripheral vision on my left, and my friends laugh at me squinting to see things in the distance, but overall, it’s not much different than any other person who has poor vision.”

Despite her diagnosis, Leah doesn’t think that her visual impairment has influenced her life much at all. “I think it’s important I don’t overstate my experience of sight loss, especially since working with the blind women I spoke with for this project and seeing how it affects every aspect of their life.”

“My experience of sight loss served as inspiration for this project, but without them sharing their lived experiences, this project never would have been possible,” she added.

Speaking about their experience of working with Leah, one of the research participants, Jackie McBrearty said: “I really appreciated Leah coming to the blind community to get our views on what would work for us and what wouldn’t.”

“Her design gives blind women privacy during one of the biggest moments of their lives, which could be either the worst or the best thing ever for them.” She continued: “I do not doubt that Leah will go far in her career.”

Although Leah originally came to UL to study Physics and Maths, she felt there wasn’t enough of a creative outlet for her. After switching to Product Design and Technology, she found a home in the studio with her fellow design students.

“I was never someone who enjoyed spending time studying, so although the long days could be tough, it was always so great getting to spend that time being creative and problem-solving.”

“I’ve also made some of my closest lifelong friends working alongside my peers in the studio during those long days, so I’ll always be very fond of the time I spent in studio,” Leah reflected.

Leah was supervised throughout her final year design project by Associate Professor Dr Louise Kiernan, School of Architecture and Product Design. Dr Kiernan stated: “Leah has been a dedicated student and a pleasure to work with. She has designed a very much needed product and showed great empathy and understanding of her research participants and worked with them to create a very innovative solution.”

Reflecting on her creative design journey, Leah said: “What keeps me curious is connecting with people. I love listening to other people’s stories and experiences, there’s always something new to learn from the way someone else sees the world.

“I think being open to those conversations, and to collaborating with others, sparks new ideas and helps me look at things from different perspectives,” she added.

The HSE awarded 12 bursaries to students from six design schools across the country this year, with three bursaries going to students of UL’s Product Design and Technology, Leah was one of these bursary recipients, as well as one student of the MSc in Design for Health and Wellbeing programme.

Leah and the other Design on the Frontline (DOTFL) scholars received a bursary to the value of €1,000 along with the opportunity to engage with frontline healthcare professionals throughout the development of their innovative design projects.