When Hurricane María released its full fury on the island of Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017, the power grid was devastated. Months later, only about 34% of the population had reliable power. Sheree Gibson, the Vice President of the Foundation for Professional Ergonomics (FPE) contacted her friend and colleague, Professor Lida Orta Anés, an ergonomist who teaches in the School of Public Health at the University of Puerto Rico, to determine if there was anything that would help the University.
Orta Anés said that the school had previously standardized on electronic textbooks rather than hard-copies for their students. With power only partially available and unreliable even then, the students were using their smart phones to access the texts. Unfortunately, the heavy smart phone use ran down the phones’ batteries and with the current power situation and the lack of capability to charge the phones, the students could not read or complete assignments in a timely manner. Ms Gibson collaborated with the FPE’s ErgWB liaison, Dr. Tom Albin. Together they arranged for ErgWB to purchase solar phone chargers for the students to use. Twenty-two solar chargers were sent. They were used by students when classes resumed on January 8th.