Adaptive Design site visit - November 7, 2006

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Assistive Technology field trip to Adaptive Design Association in NYC. Adaptive Design makes custom chairs and other items for kids with disabilities. ADA primarily uses cardboard as it's building material since it is cheap, easily available and easily worked. Appearance is very important to them -- they seal the edges and put on a nice paint job so the child can feel happy about their assistive device. This chair shows how the unfinished cardboard first has it's edges sealed with paper then a white primer and top-coat of paint and urethane are applied. Alex Truesdell of Adaptive Design explaining a custom chair. Rocking chair made from cardboard with straps to keep child properly in place. The finished cardboard is surprising strong, and the paint/urethane finish is wipeable. Local artists are encouraged to paint the chairs. This board can be used for communication -- the child picks the appropriate symbol to indicate what they want. ADA keeps a catalog showing their devices in use. Inspiring stuff! Chair with curved back and built-in tray. Triple-wall cardboard rated for 800lbs. ADA is a non-profit and relies on mulltiple sources of funding to continue. You can get involved at http://www.adaptivedesign.org/getinvolved.html Couch supporting two of the Occupational Therapists in ITP's Assistive Technology class. Some more custom devices created by ADA. A lot of children have problems with proper seating at school. If you're smaller than the rest of the kids you will be below eye level and everyone looks down on you! After receiving this chair the child looked across to the other students at eye level and simply said "awesome!!" ADA started with techniques for making cardboard devices developed by Bevil Packer in Zimbabwe. Bevil's philosophy was to use local materials that were essentially free (cardboard, discarded advertising posters, etc). I want this chair! Custom chair with wheels. The little girl this was designed for can't walk. A clear plexiglass play space designed for blind children. Most of the office furniture at ADA is also made from cardboard. (Eat your own dogfood...) Not really related to ADA but my kind of poster :) The Assistive Technology class is composed of approximately half Occupational Therapists and half technologists/builders/artists from ITP. Build Stuff. Workshop at ADA with devices covered with white primer paint. The cardboard is cut on a bandsaw but most of the other work is done with hand tools. Trader Joe's signature edition. The logos are from bags cut and used to seal the edges of the cardboard. Kate playing with a busy box. The different buttons trigger sound or light. Good advice. Steven, one of the ADA builders, is moonlighting building a huge sewing machine as a promotional piece. Full-size sewing machine in progress. Surface of the sewing machine. Alex gave us a real design problem ADA was working on -- how to make this cardboard chair fit securely onto the chair beneath? Rhys penciling in some cut marks. Building stuff is fun! Different types of cardboard used by ADA. ADA also makes some devices out of plastic sheet. This chair is about 2 feet tall. Rhys getting down with the jigsaw. Test fit of the first cut. Freshdirect model. Alex demonstrating some tools and techniques. It's a simple process but labour intensive.