Arthritis Simulation Gloves

We make a lot of ergo hand tools and a Product Manager recently asked me if there’s any way to simulate the effects of arthritis when using tools. I remembered a day in human factors class when we tried on special gloves and tried to do stuff. I found these gloves being hand made at Georgia Tech that I thought everyone might find interesting.

Now for the question, I don’t think my boss is going to pony up the $440 for a pair, has anyone used anything else to achieve the same effect?

Also below is a flickr stream with what appears to be some in process development of the GT gloves.

http://hseb.gtri.gatech.edu/gloves.php

Imgur

we’ve done in-house empathy sessions with MGT and Engineers, and we just masking tape their knuckles over regular work gloves…