Why?

A personal story from Rhys Cooper about why he decided to create the Doo Phone.

I was working as a disability support worker in Brisbane, Australia. I went to meet a man (Geoff) who I had been caring for over a number of years, but when I got to his house he was nowhere to be found. I knew that Geoff should have gotten home hours earlier, so I started to make some calls to see where he might be.

After a short while I realised that Geoff was a missing person and I had to call the police. As I knew the last place he should have been was catching the bus home, I called the local bus company. After many people searching for many hours, Geoff was eventually spotted sitting alone at a bus stop, about a 10 minute walk from his house. Unfortunately Geoff had missed getting off at the right bus stop. When he realised he was lost, he got off the bus at the next stop.

Due to the nature of Geoff’s disability, he was not able to find his way home. So he sat and waited for nearly 8 hours from the time he lost his way, until I came and picked him up. In the time that Geoff was waiting, the sun had gone down and dinner time had passed. It was obvious to me that Geoff had been very upset while he was lost and waiting at the bus stop.

The part of the story that I was most frustrated at, was the fact that if Geoff had a mobile phone that he could use, he could have been found in less than a few minutes. I had been very aware of this and had been trialling phones with Geoff for over a year in the lead up to this incident, however, I could not find a single phone on the market that suited Geoff’s needs. This is when I decided to put pen to paper and design a phone that I thought would work for Geoff. It’s been a long journey since then, but if making the Doo Phone means that one person like Geoff won’t have to go through a scenario like this, then it will all have been worth it.