People with special needs inspired Saudi students participating in the National Olympiad for Scientific Creativity “Ibd’a” with several diverse innovations that reflected their human side and their sense of social responsibility.  

 One of the most prominent winning innovations was the “Grateful Walk” innovation, in which student Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Shammari from Al-Dafy High School in Jubail Industrial City participated, achieving second place out of 123 participating projects.  

The idea aims to treat a lame person who suffers from a deficiency in the length of one of his legs, so that he can walk in a balanced and healthy manner, and thus avoid any effects resulting from the problem of lameness, whether health (physical) or psychological.  

Al Shammari says that “Grateful Walk” not only treats the problem of limping, but also completely hides it, and this is what distinguishes it from other innovations that treat the same problem. Once the limping person wears the shoe, he will be able to walk in a balanced and healthy manner, and no one will notice his limping.  

Al-Shammari explains this by saying: “He used springs distributed all over the foot, placing them under the shoe, to compensate for the lack of leg length. He also placed springs for the missing leg that were stronger than the other foot so that the feet would be on the same level.”  

He added: This innovation also reduces the pressure on the foot resulting from gravity during walking, which causes many problems, including arthritis and back pain, because the feet will hit the ground successively, not directly.  

Regarding his second place win, Al-Shammari confirmed that he was confident of winning because working on the idea took him two years of effort and scientific research, in which he sought help from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Prince Salman Center for Comprehensive Rehabilitation, and Jubail College, which made him completely confident in his chances of winning given the effort he put in.