Assistive Technology Anywhere
I first learned about Magic Wheelchair at the inaugural Nation of Makers Conference in Santa Fe New Mexico in 2018. They pulled on the heartstrings of all in attendance and brought tears to my eyes as they described the work that they’re doing and the impact they’re having for kids that use a wheelchair for mobility. Read more about how they got started from “The Dude” himself.
AOTA ( The American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc.) holds an annual conference and this year it was in New Orleans Louisiana. I was honored to be able to represent the Neil Squire Society Makers Making Change program alongside the venerable Harry Lew. We were on the corner of “Maker Alley” next to Bill & Lori Binko with AT Makers where I got to see a speech generating device that Bill has been developing which makes a great point and can make a positive impact for a user.
Continue reading “Making Noise at AOTA”
Part of traveling around the country with my family included visiting with makers at maker spaces and community therapists wherever I could connect with them. The main goal with these conversations was to start building bridges between the two in an effort for them to work together in creating new innovations and assistive technology solutions.
This segment is what comes out of existing communities that are already blazing the trail and making great assistive technology solutions to help people live more independent lives. Some of these existing networks are linked below:
Whether you’re a maker looking for a meaningful project to work on or a therapists looking to have your idea made into a reality, plug in somewhere and help build the bridge.
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 Continue reading “My introduction to Assistive Technology”
Bill at AT Makers has designed this switch to address some issues with what’s currently available in the assistive technology market. I’m excited to get this one printed, tested and into the hands of someone that can benefit from having it.