Makers Making Change, a project of not for profit organization Neil Squire Society, offers a platform for makers (engineers, hobbyists, students, corporations, etc.) to volunteer their time to make an assistive device from our projects library. People with disabilities, their family members, or disability professionals can request a project that they feel will help address a person’s barriers.

Makers Making Change is hosting a Lipsync Buildathon - an event that has participants building an open source assistive technology, the LipSync (www.makersmakingchange.com/lipsync). By the end of the session, each event participant will make a LipSync for a person in their community. This event is on October 5^th  from 9 – 4pm, at the Double Tree Hilton in Dartmouth and in partnership with the Nova Scotia Society of Occupational Therapists.

The organization is looking for individuals who would like to volunteer their time to help event participants with the process of building LipSync devices. The LipSync enables a person that has no use of their hands to use a touchscreen device, laptop or computer — it is a mouth operated joystick that allows a person to control an onscreen cursor with minimal head and neck movement. The LipSync is an open-source hardware project funded by Google, and uses 3D printed parts, an Arduino Micro board, and other common parts that can be soldered to a circuit board and built in a day. Participants in the event are supplied with the tools, components, parts and instructions, and will work together to assemble, solder, 3D print components, and transfer the code onto an Arduino board.

It is a full day event, but volunteers can chose how much time they would like to commit and in what capacity.

Anyone interested in volunteering, or wanting more information, please contact:

Courtney Cameron

courtneyc@neilsquire.ca

902-240-1538