Medical Alert for Lock Screens
Overview
Diabetes is many things. Challenging, empowering, strengthening. But when I had my first child I discovered it can also be humbling.
I was postpartum, managing T1D, and for the first time I thought seriously about what would happen if someone found me unconscious. Medical alert bracelets exist for exactly this — I had just never needed one before. So I looked into it and was surprised by the friction: find one, buy one, wear it every day, hope whoever finds you notices it.
Then I thought about the phone. The one thing almost nobody leaves home without. The first thing someone picks up when they find an unconscious person. The lock screen — visible to anyone, no unlocking required.
Methodology and Findings
So I made a small set of free downloadable lock screen backgrounds. A caduceus, a Star of Life, an insulin pump, a syringe and vial. Clear text: *Type 1 Diabetic* or *Type 2 Diabetic*. Legible at a glance, by anyone, under stress.
The setup: change your wallpaper. Once. A grandmother can do it. A teenager can do it. Someone who never touches their phone settings can ask someone else to do it for them once and never think about it again.
Conclusion
I share them freely across social media and diabetes forums. No app, no account, no cost. Please feel free to download and distribute.