My start in assistive technology was a trial by fire. I accepted a job at Southwest Human Development’s ADAPT Shop program as their Fabricator not really knowing what the work would be like. I knew I could design because of my background in architecture, but I didn’t know how well the skills that developed while learning the practice of architecture would translate into my daily tasks at The ADAPT Shop.
If you haven’t seen what SWHD is doing in their unique program called ADAPT Shop, you can check it out here: https://www.swhd.org/adapt/adapt/
If you want to see what a typical day was like, this video does a great job:
The work we did was challenging, innovative, creative, and sometimes unsuccessful. But any downsides to being the fabricator of custom assistive technology for kids ages birth to 5 years old was greatly overshadowed by the relationships I got to build with the families and kids that came to our shop looking for answers, creative solutions, and sometimes just someone to listen to their struggles and provide encouragement.
When I left The ADAPT Shop in pursuit of a personal family adventure (see: http://fultonaround.com/) I left knowing that my passion is in the field of assistive technology and as my journey continues, I aim to be an advocate for the people that benefit from assistive technology ( over 20% of people according to http://www.dmd-aapd.org/assistive-technology/) and hope to find a niche where my passion and skill set can be applied to benefit people living with disabilities to increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities in their lives. This is the reason for starting AT Nomad, a registered 501(c)3 non profit organization (https://apps.irs.gov/app/eos/displayAll.do?dispatchMethod=displayAllInfo&Id=5581216&ein=831878925&country=US&deductibility=all&dispatchMethod=searchAll&isDescending=false&city=&ein1=&postDateFrom=&exemptTypeCode=al&submitName=Search&sortColumn=orgName&totalResults=25&names=at+nomad&resultsPerPage=25&indexOfFirstRow=0&postDateTo=&state=All+States).