Many people are familiar with the phrase one size does not fit all. There can be many good solutions out there to solving a problem. And that philosophy is what fuels the DIY community to creatively accomplish tasks outside of the typical mainstream method of doing so. Chad Leaman, Director of Innovation for Makers Making Change, explains to J.J. how the Neil Squire Society is offering a way for creators to tackle common Assistive Technology issues through the power of community and open source solutions. To learn more about this project, or to join in the cause and submit your own ideas, visit the Makers making Change website
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For the latest news and accessibility information on mainstream and access technology, Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon offerings, access technology book reviews, and mobile apps, and how they can enhance entertainment, education and employment, log on to AccessWorld, the American Foundation for the Blind's free, monthly, online technology magazine. Visit www.afb.org/aw.
Transcript
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Hide transcriptTranscribed By Grecia Ramirez
From beautiful Orlando, Florida, it’s blindbargains.com coverage of ATIA 2019, brought to you by AFB AccessWorld.
For the latest news and accessibility information on mainstream and access technology; Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon offerings; access technology; book reviews; and mobile apps and how they can enhance entertainment, education, and employment, log onto AccessWorld, the American Foundation for the Blind's free monthly online technology magazine. www.AFB.org/AW.
Now, here’s J.J. Meddaugh.
J.J. MEDDAUGH: Blind Bargains here at ATIA 2019. I love finding the smaller booths that have really innovative and different projects. Hay. Innovative. Chad Leaman is the director of innovation for the Neil Squires Society up in Canada, and you have a really interesting project called Makers Making Change.
Welcome to the podcast, Chad.
CHAD LEAMAN: Thanks, J.J. Appreciate you taking the time to learn a bit more about our work.
JM: So this is the really interesting idea and repository of – where people can kind of get things developed for – or these pie-in-the-sky, or new projects – I’ll let you explain it. You’ll do better than me.
CL: Yeah. So Makers Making Change is a new initiative to try to connect the maker movement, so like STEM club, robotic clubs, hacker spaces, maker spaces -- to help people with disabilities get to be professionals, to make assistive technology more affordable or more customizable to their needs.
JM: So you have a website, and there’s different types of projects that are up there?
CL: Yeah. Makersmakingchange.com has a list of projects. Some are just ideas of things that people have posted that they need that maybe doesn’t exist or maybe needs an adaptation. There’s prototypes, some projects that are being worked on but need some refinement or reviews and testing to make sure they’re good. And then there’s completed projects: Things have been working -- a bunch of people, they’re well-documented. So you could go to the website, you can download any of these projects, get the files, the build materials, and make it yourself or get paired with someone in your community to do that.
JM: Okay. How many different projects are up there currently?
CL: Right now, there’s over 50 projects. I would say a little over half of them are actually projects that have been made by other people. So we’re at a point where it’s not just what we’re doing -- you know, we have a couple engineers for us that do a lot of great work. But the power’s sort of crowd sourcing, finding what other people are doing and sharing it and trying to help spread those out.
JM: So any examples jump out at you as far as different projects or ones that you thought were really cool on the site?
CL: Yeah. We have a couple of them here at our booth. One is a music box for someone with Alzheimer’s or low memory. So the idea is that there’s some research out that shows that music, especially music from when someone was younger, has a calming effect for someone that has Alzheimer’s, dementia, memory loss. So the maker made – it’s a little wooden box for his dad. And, basically, it has two controls on it -- volume up, volume down, next song, last song -- because the iPhone in your pocket is way too complicated and in your face for someone with memory loss issues.
JM: So that just pairs to your phone?
CL: This – it actually has a little USB stick in the back with music.
JM: Oh. So it just plays it.
CL: So you can – the caregiver or the family member put the music the person likes on the box, they just plug in their headphones, and they got a very simple control. And then we pair that person with another maker, which made the box look like one of those, sort of, 1940’s style cathedral radios. So it looks like the radio that the dad grew up with. So it’s got this 3D printed design, as well as laser-cut wood design. So it looks like a traditional old radio. Underneath, it’s a Raspberry Pi electronics. But it’s -- so you know that -- you know, user interface for the appropriate person using modern technology to make it work.
JM: And I saw a lot of 3D printed things up there. One, for instance, a signature guide for the blind. You know, lots of different projects for lots of different disabilities up there.
CL: Yeah. Yeah. I was thinking, the majority of our projects are centered around 3D printing. One – so yeah. For the blind, this is our signature guide, kind of guide. And this one, we don’t want on the site yet. It’s in the middle of the, sort of, research phase. It’s being done by Ultimaker, a 3D printer company, where they’re working with Benetech to build a repository of aids for learning that are tactile. So someone that is vision-impaired, but uses – so they’re trying to teach, like, what a lobster looks like. Well, here’s a 3D printed lobster so you can kind of feel the claws and the pieces of – you know. Shoving your hand in a lobster tank and learning the hard way what the sharp end is.
JM: And that makes sense, because there are a lot of 3D printed objects, but just to collect all of those in one spot would be very useful.
CL: Yeah. And they’re trying to get a better idea of, like, you know, what sort of filament’s the best type, how big should it be, or how small it should be. So they’re sending these prototypes to five different schools to focus specifically on teaching people with vision impairments to get an idea of what the best practices are so that those things can scale out to other user populations.
JM: So if I go up there and I post an idea for a project, it’s up on the website. Does anyone else look at it, or how does that work from there?
CL: Yeah. Any maker that sort of signs on to the website can go and volunteer for it, and what we’ve done a little bit more of lately is use our mail list of about two thousand people to connect. So like, here’s a new project that needs TLC, and try to get from the person posting the project a good detailed description, like what they want to do, why it matters, what they’ve looked at, why those don’t work, to really try to help the makers that are volunteering their time have the best information as possible. So usually kind of a webinar session where people kind of kick around ideas, bounce, people go off and work on things and come back with some different prototypes and iterate from there.
JM: Is it expected that anything that is posted on the website becomes an open-source Creative Commons type situation, or is it depending on the project?
CL: Yeah. Everything we have on the site is open-source. You – the maker can choose what sort of Creative Commons license they want, whether it’s no derivatives or no, you know, monetary, sort of piece. But yeah. The things we’re trying to do is to really be an open-source thing so it doesn’t become another assistive device that costs a couple hundred dollars, a couple thousand dollars, that’s really – like an Ikea project; right? You put the screw in here, this bolt there, you build it on your own.
JM: Very cool. Once again, that website again?
CL: Makersmakingchange.com.
JM: And how could people contact you guys?
CL: Yeah. Through the website, makersmakingchange.com, people can sign up in the exhibit – or, sorry -- sign up and post projects, or they can give me an Email. My name’s Chad. My Email’s chadl@makersmakingchange.com.
JM: Thank you so much, Chad.
CL: J.J. Appreciate the time. Have a great conference.
JM: You too.
CL: Awesome, buddy.
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Joe Steinkamp is no stranger to the world of technology, having been a user of video magnification and blindness related electronic devices since 1979. Joe has worked in radio, retail management and Vocational Rehabilitation for blind and low vision individuals in Texas. He has been writing about the A.T. Industry for 15 years and podcasting about it for almost a decade.
