LipSync

May 27th – June 2nd is National AccessAbility Week, a time to promote inclusion and accessibility and to celebrate the contributions of Canadians with disabilities. We have three big events coming up with TELUS, Microsoft, and Moncton High School.

TELUS Days of Giving LipSync Buildathon: Victoria (May 28th)

TELUS employees will volunteer their time and skills to help build LipSyncs that will go out to individuals in their communities. Want to help out or receive a LipSync? Register for the TELUS Days of Giving LipSync Buildathon.

Moncton High School LipSync Buildathon (May 30th)

Moncton High School students will come together to build LipSyncs for people with disabilities. Sign up if you can volunteer or if you’d like to receive a LipSync. Register for the Moncton High School LipSync Buildathon.

Lunch and Learn with Microsoft (May 31st)

As part of Mobility Day, Microsoft will be hosting this event with demos from Tobii Eye Tracking and us. We’ll be demonstrating the LipSync and how it can help persons with limited use of their hands. Register for the Microsoft Lunch and Learn.

Join us to promote accessibility!

PS: Are you a post-secondary student living with a spinal cord injury and studying in British Columbia? More than $250,000 in post-secondary funding is available this year through the Gragopean Scholarship Fund. For more information, please visit sci-bc.ca/scholarships.

Harry, our Manager of Research and Development, and Jake, our Mechanical Engineer, are coming down to sunny California for two events.

San Francisco Maker Faire (May 18th - 20th)

It's the biggest Maker Faire on Earth (or as they say, the Greatest Show and Tell)! Harry and Jake will be at our booth all three days, so stop by and say hi if you're around.

On the 20th, Harry will sit on a panel called Making Access for People with Disabilities. He'll talk about Makers Making Change alongside four brilliant makers who will cover adaptations for persons with different disabilities.

Sign up for the San Francisco Maker Faire here.

Laser Cutting Keyguards Workshop (May 22nd)

We're making the most of our stay in the Bay Area and hosting this workshop in partnership with the Communication Technology Education Center (CTEC) and HackerLab.

Keyguards can be very useful for people with disabilities, helping them control their input and address mobility and agility issues. We're sending our best laser cutter, Jake, to lead this workshop.

Sign up for the Laser Cutting Keyguard workshop here.

We hope to see you soon!

Makers Making Change has started reaching out to Occupational Therapists (OTs). OTs work directly with people with disabilities and can connect them with our services, giving people access to more affordable, community-made assistive devices.

Help Us Print Low Tech AT Kits

Our Low Tech AT Kits are composed of simple 3D-printed devices from our Open Source Assistive Technology Library. We will share these kits with OTs, whose clients will be able to try out the devices. 

This will help us get valuable feedback on how well these devices function and how they can be improved to meet the needs of people with disabilities.

Contents of a Makers Making Change Low Tech AT Kit

• Key Turner (PLA)
• Palm Pen Holder (PLA)
• Ball Pen Holder (PLA)
• Bottle Opener (ideally ABS or a stronger filament that can handle repeated flexing)
• Nail Clipper Holder (ideally ABS or a stronger filament that can handle repeated flexing)

If you want to get involved, please get in touch with Zee, the Makers Making Change Project Manager, by emailing her at zeek@neilsquire.ca. She will connect you with a hospital or disability organization in your area where you can drop off the kit.

Thank you for your support!

Makers Making Change have partnered with TELUS to host six TELUS Days of Giving LipSync Buildathons across Canada. We invite you to join us at any of these events, especially if you or someone you know in these communities could benefit from a LipSync.

Upcoming TELUS Days of Giving LipSync Buildathons

The first one is coming up tomorrow, May 4th, in Calgary. Register here for the buildathon in Calgary.

When: 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM MDT

Where: 2912 Memorial Dr SE, Calgary, AB T2A 6R1

Our deep appreciation and thanks to TELUS for providing the funding, staff as volunteers, and support in helping us build over 100 LipSyncs through their Days of Giving to benefit people with disabilities.

We at Makers Making Change are happy to announce some upcoming buildathons. We have an exciting (and exhausting) list of events planned for May, June, and July. 

Here’s a sneak peek at the ones in May:

May 4: Buildathon in Calgary
May 12: Buildathon in the Okanagan
May 14: BC Tech Summit LipSync Buildathon
May 22: Laser-cut keyguard workshop in California
May 25: Buildathon in Vancouver
May 28: Buildathon in Victoria

Save these dates! We'll share more details over the upcoming weeks. We are looking forward to collaborating with makers all over North America as we build devices that help people with disabilities.

PS: This Saturday, April 28th, we will be in Philadelphia for the NextFab Accessibility Hackathon during Philly Tech Week 2018. Pop by and say hi if you’re in the area.

Every week is science week at Makers Making Change. We really hopped on the science train this past week, though.

A Visit from the Minister

On April 12th, we were thrilled to welcome the Honourable Kirsty Duncan, Minister of Science and Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities, to the Neil Squire Society’s Burnaby Head Office. We showcased the LipSync and other low-tech assistive devices such as a pen holder and nail clipper holder.

Jim demonstrates a LipSync to Minister Duncan

Chad shows the Minister a palm pen holder

View more photos from the Minister's visit here.

STAN Conference

On April 11th, Chad was the keynote speaker at the STAN 2018 conference here in Vancouver. Held at Science World, the event was all about building bridges and creating communities in STEAM. That's a big part of our work at Makers Making Change!

Chad delivering the keynote at STAN 2018

Science World Community Scientist Initiative

We were back at Science World on April 15th when Jake, our Mechanical Engineer, hosted a booth as part of the Community Scientist Initiative. The initiative gives all Science World visitors an opportunity to meet and learn from a science-based professional.

Jake showing children some asistive writing devices like the palm pen holder and pen ball

Phew – that was a busy few days. Now, we are down in Utah for the AOTA Conference.

Our Makers Making Change team will be making a beeline for Salt Lake City, Utah, to attend the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) Annual Conference April 19–22. There, we'll be connecting with occupational therapists and local resource organizations to spread the message of open-source technologies benefitting people with disabilities.

We're excited to add that we'll be hosting a pre-conference workshop on Wednesday, April 18th: The Occupational Therapist’s Maker Toolbox: DIY Assistive Technology Solutions in the Clinic. Attendees will learn about 3D-printing, soldering, and making different assistive technology solutions.

Last year was our first time at the AOTA Conference and we discovered there was huge interest in the concept of making. Some occupational therapists who had been in the industry for over 30 to 40 years spoke about their experiences with tinkering in order to create their own assistive solutions.

We're looking forward to connecting with even more occupational therapists and local resource groups this year, furthering our goal of connecting people with disabilities to makers.

Grade 10 student Fawzan has founded Fraser Heights Youth for CARE, a student group that raises awareness of Surrey Memorial Hospital while engaging youth in the community.

Fawzan and his group 3D-printed pen balls, palm pen holders, bottle openers, and other devices from our open-source Assistive Technology Library to help people with disabilities.

Above: Fawzan in our Makers Making Change lab, demonstrating the MindWave EEG (electroencephalogram) headset. He is using the device for a science fair experiment, measuring links between attention span and math scores

Above: Some pen holders and in white, a bottle opener that the Youth for CARE group created

Fawzan says: "I strive to follow Mahatma Gandhi's advice: be the change you wish to see in this world. I wish to use my knowledge and skills to help and make a positive change in my community. I also like to encourage my peers to assist others in need."

We're glad youth like Fawzan are coming together to do some good in their communities. We hope to continue hearing such amazing stories throughout the year!

On World Create Day, we worked on some (very cool) projects that would empower people with disabilities. In Vancouver, we created custom video game controllers, prototyped exo-skeleton arms, and repaired LipSyncs.

We were joined by students and volunteers. Here’s the team in action:

Above: Mimi working on an accessible Wii controller

Above: UBC capstone team members, (left) Albert and (right) Wen-Ling, showing off their work on an updated LipSync running on Adafruit Feather board

Above: SFU capstone team working their way through an exo-skeleton arm (and snacks – snacks are important)

Thank you for helping us build something that matters.

We are sad to hear of the passing of Stephen Hawking. Along with being one of the most brilliant minds of his time, he was also a steadfast advocate of assistive technology. He insisted that the technology which helped him communicate be open-source, in order to be accessible to everyone who needed it.

In honour of Professor Hawking, CBC's The Current aired a segment on assistive technology. Dr. Gary Birch, Executive Director of the Neil Squire Society, was fortunate to be a guest on the show. You can listen to the segment here.

PS: The system Intel developed for Professor Hawking is publicly available as the Assistive Context-Aware Toolkit (ACAT). You can explore the ACAT files on GitHub. Open-source technology is a big part of our work at Makers Making Change, so we believe this is useful and important.