HuskyADAPT

UW CREATE Presents at the UWFB Meeting Spring 2024

Katie Landwehr HuskyADAPT, News , , ,

The Center for Research and Education on Accessible Technology and Experiences (CREATE) presented at the University of Washington Foundation Board Meeting Spring 2024.

A group of people on a stage

Kat Steele, Associate Director of CREATE introduced the impact of the center over its first 5 years and trainees, including former CREATE postdoc Kim Ingraham, present our research on the impact of access to early powered mobility at the board meeting. Check out the presentation (starting at 59 minutes, link to video on YouTube HERE ).

During the Cocktail Hour Showcase, Heather Feldner and Mia Hoffman also shared their work with HuskyADAPT and the development of accessible design and play technology.

As highlighted through these presentations, CREATE’s mission is to make technology accessible and to make the world accessible through technology.

A person standing next to a table

Introducing Dr. Nicole Zaino

Yusuke Maruo AccessEngineering, Awards, EngineeringInHealth, Exams, Graduation, HuskyADAPT, News, Orthoses

Congratulations to Dr. Nicole Zaino on earning her Doctorate in Mechanical Engineering! Dr. Zaino’s PhD thesis dissertation was titled Walking and Rolling: Evaluation Technology to Support Multimodal Mobility for Individuals with Disabilities. Congratulations and best of luck as you move forward training on the Elite Team at Crosscut Mountain Sports Center in para nordic sit skiing and assistive technology field.

HuskyADAPT… adapts!

Elijah HuskyADAPT, News, Outreach

Boxes of of many different colorful toysForegroud: woman wearing clear glasses smiling behind mask. Background: woman holding toy smiling behind mask next to car

Many University of Washington Mechanical Engineering student clubs had to think outside the (toy)box and overcome disruptions caused by the COVID-19 global pandemic, but few have adapted as well as HuskyADAPT lead by the SteeleLab’s very own Alyssa Spomer and Nicole Zaino.

This year they pivoted to have virtual workshops to continue providing students with hands-on-experience modifying toys, and contactless donation events to keep up the distribution of free adapted toys throughout western Washington.

Way to go Alyssa, Nicole, and all HuskyADAPTers! Keep it up!

HuskyADAPT toy hackathon event with Microsoft

Elijah HuskyADAPT, News, Outreach, Projects

Younger woman in purple giving a presentation on two projection screens in a design space while a many others wearing green shirts look on Several people, two in green shirts and one in a black shirt, listen to a young gentleman in a gray jacket as he talks about the toys in front of him

Alyssa Spomer along with HuskyADAPT (Accessible Design & Play Technology) hosted the first-ever adapted toy Hackathon with Microsoft. The event combined design and toy adaptation, as teams of HuskyADAPT students and Microsoft employees worked together to adapt toys and develop new designs for adapted toy switches and switch mounts.

Groups of people sitting around wooden tables with parts strewn about, many of them wearing greens shirts, with a younger gentleman writing on a white board with another gentleman smiling at the table and examining what he is writing  A woman wearing a orange jackets and black shirt and a man wearing a green shirt smiling while holding a toy in front of a workshop

Over 25 Microsoft employees joined 20 students, including the Steele Lab’s own Alyssa Spomer, Nicole Zaino, Charlotte Caskey, and Elijah Kuska, in the CoMotion MakerSpace for this community-focused and adaptive driven workshop.

Large group of individuals smiling in a workshop while holding toys

During the day-long hackathon, over 20 toys were adapted to incorporate a new switch mechanism to facilitate play and several new inexpensive switches, toy-type converters, and switch mounting systems were designed and prototyped.  Thank you to the Microsoft employees, for their willingness and commitment to assist those in need, the CoMotion MakerSpace volunteers, for allowing us to use their space, and our HuskyADAPT team and lab members, for their dedication to outreach events.