If you pay attention to any tech news whatsoever, you’re aware that 3D printing is the latest fad spreading through the industry with labs across the country attempting to outdo each other with their printing projects.
However, SUNY New Paltz (State University of New York at New Paltz) has taken 3D printing to the next level, making it not just a science experiment — but a life-changing program. Last month, the school’s printing lab created a plastic hand for a six-year-old boy with no fingers, giving him a mobile hand for the first time in his life.
Joseph Gilbert was born with a congenital condition known as symbrachydactyly, which left him with a left hand devoid of fingers and one very foreshortened thumb. Although Joseph is a three-sport athlete — playing baseball, basketball and soccer — life with only one hand is no easy task.
So when Scott Paige, a friend of Joseph’s mother’s and a former worker in the prosthetics field, heard about a West Coast engineer who had uploaded a 3D printable model of prosthetic hand, he rushed to SUNY New Paltz.
After hearing from Paige, the school’s Hudson Valley Advanced Manufacturing Center set to work. Assistant director Katherine Wilson worked alongside Spencer Mass, a biology professor; Caryn Byllot, who works in biology and fine arts; and electrical engineering student Adam Carlock to design and build the hand.
While most prosthetics cost about $20,000 or $30,000, the 3D printed hand was made out of only about $20 worth of materials.
When Joseph came in to try his hand for the first time, he was joined by his mother, sister and the members of the team. He tried on the glove and for the first time was able to move his fingers.
How does the robohand work? Well, when wearing the glove, Joseph only has to flex his wrist which then allows the fingers on the hand to grip objects. The Center is continuing to make adjustments to the hand to ensure it is a perfect fit and will be able to make new ones to adjust it as he grows.
Dan Freedman is the Dean of the School of Science and Engineering at New Paltz and used to serve as the Center’s director. For him, the robohand is the perfect use of the technology. “Creating functional prosthetics for children is one of the best examples of how 3D design and printing can be used to build remarkable objects at a small fraction of the cost of standard fabrication methods,” says Freedman.
The creation of the robohand just goes to show that nothing is out of arm’s reach. All it takes is just a little elbow grease, some technology and childlike wonder to grasp what only sounds unattainable.
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Tag: disabled
Meet the Surprising Group of People Making Life Easier in the Kitchen for People With Disabilities
There are 54 million Americans living with a disability in this very moment. That number constitutes the country’s largest minority, and yet there seems to be little consideration for their needs in the kitchen.
Which is exactly why a group of student volunteers from Montana’s Highlands College in Butte are doing their part to service this need by building a brand new, American Disabilities Act-compliant kitchen from the ground-up. As the Montana Standard reports, these students teamed up with the Silver Bow Developmental Disabilities Council (an organization that provides services to disabled community members) to transform a unused and worn-down handball court into a gleaming “dream kitchen” for people with disabilities, providing easy and safe access to sinks, cabinets, counter tops and appliance.
After two years of building a kitchen from scratch, the project, called the Nutrition Education Station, is nearing completion. The aim of the Nutrition Education Station is to build a “teaching style kitchen for people with disabilities,” the Standard writes. Once finished, the space will be open to any organization that serves the disabled, allowing instructors to teach nutrition and cooking classes.
Bill Ryan, Chair of the Trades & Technical Department at Highlands College, told Montana Tech there is a growing need for spaces like this in the community.
“The number of people who are disabled and aging who choose to be self-sufficient and stay in their own homes is growing,” Ryan said. “This project was excellent for our students as they not only got to learn about the technical requirements for making a kitchen accessible to the disabled, they also got to work on a project which will directly help their own community.”
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The Most Vulnerable Citizens in Rhode Island Finally Have Some Good News
For years Rhode Island residents with intellectual and developmental disabilities spent their time in “sheltered workshops,” where they were supposed to perform menial tasks like unwrapping bars of soap or putting caps on bottles of lotion. They only made about $2.21 an hour, the AP reports.
Fortunately, the Justice Department and the state of Rhode Island put an end to that last Tuesday.
The two parties agreed to a settlement that requires Rhode Island to give disabled citizens a chance at regular employment that pays at least the minimum wage. The agreement will affect about 3,250 people statewide.
If you’re surprised that disabled residents were spending time in sheltered workshops in the first place, perhaps you shouldn’t be. About 450,000 people with disabilities nationwide work in segregated centers, where they have little contact with the outside world, according to the AP.
“It’s a serious problem across the country, and Rhode Island is hardly unique,” Assistant Attorney General Jocelyn Samuels said at a press conference.
Segregated workshops like the ones in Rhode Island used to be viewed as the model for people with mental or developmental disabilities. But in the 1990s, the Supreme Court ruled that people with disabilities should be served in the most integrated settings possible. Rhode Island was accused of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act for years.
Now that the settlement has been reached, Rhode Island will provide minimum-wage job opportunities to about 2,000 people over the next 10 years. The state also agreed to provide transitional services, like trial work experience and job site visits, for disabled residents who are ages 14-21.
Some of the money that will fund the new program will come from the money already being spent on sheltered workshops.
This is a hopeful sign that disabled citizens in Rhode Island (and around the country) will finally have a shot at fair and meaningful employment.
Meet the Cabbie Who Goes the Extra Mile When Others Drive Right On By
Just think of the frustration you feel when taxi after taxi drives right past you, despite your outstretched hand. Now imagine how much worse it feels when cabs are zipping by because you’re in a wheelchair.
Traveling with a disability can be difficult enough — but cab drivers like Tarig Kamill make hailing a taxi less difficult.
That’s because, as the Chicago Tribune reports, Kamill gave 1,821 rides to passengers in wheelchairs last year alone. His service has earned him 60 nominations from his customers for the Windy City’s annual Taxicab Driver Excellence Award.
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The 52-year-old Chicago cab driver, who rents his wheelchair accessible van from a dispatch company, said he’s seen drivers who ignore potential passengers because they don’t want the hassle of loading a wheelchair into the cab.
“I see these drivers, and I think they are lazy,” the cabbie (who’s been driving a taxi for 11 years) told the publication. “They can make more money picking up passengers along the street, so they don’t want to bother. They don’t see that they have a responsibility to help other people.”
William Hayes, a passenger who nominated Kamill, praised the cab driver for helping these individuals from door to door. “[He will] try to help you in any way he can,” Hayes said. “He guides his clients on and off the vehicle with the utmost consideration for the client’s well-being and safety. He will assist you up to your front door and inside the building.”
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Mayor Rahm Emanuel recently presented Kamill with the award along with a free taxi medallion worth $350,000 at Olive-Harvey College.
Kamill, a former Sudanese computer engineer, said he wants to use the money to buy his own taxi. “I won’t see the savings this year because I have to purchase my own taxi,” he told the Tribune. “But once it’s paid for, it’s going to make a big, big difference for my family. I cannot even begin to explain the difference.”
“It makes me proud to read all these things,” he added about his nominations. “I want to do more. I want to provide more rides and help more people. That’s what this award has done for me.”
How a Man With Down Syndrome Made This Establishment the “World’s Friendliest Restaurant”
Tim Harris has Down Syndrome. He also owns and operates his own restaurant, Tim’s Place in Albuquerque, which is known around town as the “world’s friendliest restaurant.” It’s easy to see why. “We serve breakfast, lunch and hugs,” Tim said in a video created by AOL (although just last week the restaurant also started serving dinner). “The hugs are the best part.” Every morning, Harris gets up at 5:30 a.m. and literally dances his way to work. Every customer who comes through the doors at Tim’s Place is greeted by the hands-on owner, who introduces himself and pulls them into a big hug. In Harris’s eyes, it’s the hugs that make the place special. “The hugs are way more important than the food,” he says. When he was a kid, Harris told his mom and dad, Keith and Jeannie, that he wanted to run a restaurant. As he got older, his parents recognized that this was a dream that wasn’t going away. Now, Tim’s Place is a family affair. Harris’s dad helped him get the business started, and his older brother Dan is the restaurant’s operations manager. As far as the family knows, Harris is the only person with Down syndrome to run a restaurant in the U.S., but they hope he won’t be the last. “I did not let my disability crush my dreams,” Harris says. “People with disabilities, they can do anything they set their mind to. We’re a gift to the world.”
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All This ‘American Girl’ Wanted Was a Doll With a Story Like Hers
Like most 10-year-old girls, Melissa Shang loves American Girl dolls and their accompanying backstories. But she doesn’t see herself in any of them. Shang has Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease, a form of muscular dystrophy that causes nerve damage and muscle weakness in the arms and legs, making it difficult to get around without leg braces or a walker. Shang has been collecting American Girl dolls for years, but now, with the help of her 17-year-old sister YingYing, she’s petitioning the company to make their next “Girl of the Year”–a special edition doll released annually–a character with whom she can identify.
“Being a disabled girl is hard,” Melissa wrote on her Change.org petition. “Muscular Dystrophy prevents me from activities like running and ice-skating, and all the stuff that other girls take for granted. For once, I don’t want to be invisible or a side character that the main American Girl has to help.”
American Girl embraces diversity — in the company’s official statement regarding the Shang sisters’ petition, a representative pointed out that its dolls have had various racial, ethnic and religious backgrounds, as well as accessories like hearing aids, wheelchairs and guide dogs that can be purchased to go with any of the dolls. But for Melissa, additional accessories aren’t enough. “I want other girls to know what it’s like to be me, through a disabled American Girl’s story,” she writes. “American Girls are supposed to represent all the girls that make up American history, past and present. That includes disabled girls.”
The Shang sisters’ earnest plea has become one of the fast-growing campaigns in Change.org history, garnering more than 16,400 signatures in its first 48 hours. Since then, more than 63,000 people have signed, making the petition less than 12,000 signatures shy of reaching its goal. American Girl hasn’t said whether they’ll fulfill the sisters’ request. But either way, the story of 10-year-old Melissa Shang is an inspiration to disabled girls all on its own.
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