{"id":1254,"date":"2015-09-29T07:00:08","date_gmt":"2015-09-29T15:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abilitytools.org\/blog\/?p=1254"},"modified":"2015-09-29T07:38:13","modified_gmt":"2015-09-29T15:38:13","slug":"bay-area-make-a-thon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abilitytools.org\/blog\/bay-area-make-a-thon\/","title":{"rendered":"Bay Area Make-A-Thon"},"content":{"rendered":"
by Kim Lathrop, Administrative Assistant, CFILC<\/pre>\n
As an individual with extreme physical limitations (I was born without arms or legs) I have become more than acquainted with assistive technology and special mechanisms made with the intentions of making my life easier.<\/p>\n
I say \u2018intentions\u2019 because the people who are behind the creating\/making process are usually not people with disabilities. People without disabilities cannot begin to understand our day-to-day needs, the challenges we face nor the obstacles that surface in our path. For a huge chunk of my adult life I have always said, \u201cI wish people with disabilities were behind the making process because we know our own needs better than anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
And, after years of hoping and wishing for people with disabilities to be more of a part of developing AT, I finally had my wish granted!<\/p>\n
\u00a0A few weeks ago, I was selected to participate in an event where my ideas would actually be heard and created by AT inventors themselves.<\/p>\n
Tikkun Olam Makers (TOM)<\/a> are the ones responsible for bringing this concept into fruition. With the help of other businesses and organizations, they hold 72 hour “Makeathons” where people with disabilities (a.k.a. \u201cneed-knowers\u201d) are teamed up with professional “makers” (a.k.a. engineers, builders, architects, designers, and so much more) and the creating process begins.<\/p>\n
TOM is actually based in Israel, so what made this event so exciting was that it was the first Makeathon held in the United States.<\/p>\n
At the end of this planning and designing weekend in San Fransisco, we were asked to present to a group of judges, which was followed by a brief awards ceremony presented by the sponsors.<\/p>\n
The entire weekend completely overwhelmed me… but in a great way!<\/p>\n
The amount of cleverness and intelligence in the room was truly immeasurable. For example, my team created “The Grabber”. It\u2019s a mouth stick with a grabbing mechanism at the end that I control using my bite.<\/p>\n
\"Kim<\/a> \"Kim<\/a>I witnessed another team transform a manual push chair into an electric power chair that is controlled by using an app on a smart phone.<\/p>\n
I also watched while a foldable transfer bar was attached to a woman\u2019s wheelchair, so that she would be able to transfer from her chair independently.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, after the Makeathon, every project is set up so that further advancements can be made by the team. TOM does a fantastic job at encouraging continued open communication with the teams after the event.<\/p>\n
I saw a lot of new things and met lots of amazing people. I am genuinely touched that I was selected to participate in an experience that I\u2019ll never forget.\u00a0 I hope that my Grabber will\u00a0 one day help the lives of many individuals.<\/p>\n
Do you have ideas for AT inventions?\u00a0 Write about them in the comment section below!\u00a0 Also, check out TOM’s website by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Kim Lathrop, Administrative Assistant, CFILC As an individual with extreme physical limitations (I was born without arms or legs) I have become more than acquainted with assistive technology and special mechanisms made with the intentions of making my life easier. I say \u2018intentions\u2019 because the people who are behind the creating\/making process are usually…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1259,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,1],"tags":[9,2,7,5,16,77,15,45,76],"class_list":["post-1254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inventive-at","category-uncategorized","tag-advocacy","tag-at-network","tag-at-professional","tag-independence","tag-mobility","tag-recreation","tag-social-media","tag-success-story","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abilitytools.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abilitytools.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abilitytools.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abilitytools.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abilitytools.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1254"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/abilitytools.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1265,"href":"https:\/\/abilitytools.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1254\/revisions\/1265"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abilitytools.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abilitytools.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abilitytools.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abilitytools.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}