What a year!
In 2023, Makers Making Change hit a number of record-breaking totals for one year, delivering 5,855 assistive devices, hosting 291 events, and engaging 10,171 volunteers — 6,979 of them youth.
Here’s a look at some of the highlights:
GAME Checkpoints
In January, we publicly announced our GAME Checkpoints initiative. (GAME serving as an acronym for Gaming Accessibility Made for Everyone).
The initiative sees us working with community partners across Canada including rehab hospitals, and we provide them with gaming gear, resources, and training. Our partners become GAME Checkpoints where people with disabilities can access those resources.
Currently, there are seven GAME Checkpoints: the rehab hospitals GF Strong Rehabilitation Centre, Stan Cassidy Centre for Rehabilitation, West Park Healthcare Centre, Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital, the game developer Eidos-Montreal, as well as our Neil Squire offices in Burnaby and Calgary.
Adapted Gaming set-ups can be quite costly — sometimes up to $3,000 per client — and typically finding the right set-up for a client’s needs involves a lot of trial and error. Having a clinic equipped with the right tools and professionals equipped with that gaming knowledge allows for a client to find the right tools to help them game, without needing to spend a lot of money on their own to find out what works and what doesn’t.
“We started this program to establish accessible gaming spaces across Canada,” says Tyler Fentie, the Accessible Gaming Lead for Makers Making Change. “Through the GAME Checkpoints, we can support Canadians on their accessible gaming journey by providing opportunities to trial assistive technology with trained experts.”
Since the program began, we’ve had 290 gamer sessions and 126 unique gamers through our GAME Checkpoints.
Skills Canada
In May, the Makers Making Change team were on the scene at the Skills Canada National Competition in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
With about 13,000 students on-site, we had 526 students from grades six to 12 build us Battery Interrupters, which will be used in future toy adapting and build events across Canada. For many of the students, this was the first time they ever soldered. (We also had some of the super keen students making USB Switch Testers).
As part of the Skills Canada Mechanical Engineering CAD competition, national finalists took on two Makers Making Change projects. On the first morning, they worked from our Palm Pen Holder design to create a gaming joystick, and then in the afternoon as part of the reverse engineering challenge, they measured an oversized Rocket Switch casing and redesigned that in CAD software.
New Website
In August, we launched our new website.
With our community continuing to grow, we needed a new platform that could support our growing device library, user requests, and our expanding roster of community events.
Starting right at the homepage, you’re instantly greeted with a selection of options from our Assistive Device Library, allowing you to jump right to the device you need or the design that you’re looking to print without any hassle.
One of the key features we worked hard at is a more efficient Device Request process. Both the Device Requester and Maker will be notified by email at every step of the process, ensuring requests can be completed in a timely fashion.
The new Events page allows you to search for events in your area, making it easier to get involved with a local build, rather than sifting through every event to find if there’s one near you. We’ve also simplified our forum, making it easier to navigate and use.
10,000 Devices
On October 12th, Makers Making Change marked a huge milestone — we officially hit 10,000 assistive devices built for people with disabilities.
We officially celebrated the milestone at a build event hosted in partnership with Full Circle™, an Electronic Arts video game development studio.
“I’m tremendously proud of our team to have hit the 10,000 assistive device milestone. To see the explosion of interest in Makers Making Change and Neil Squire is just incredible,” says Gary Birch, Executive Director of Neil Squire. “It’s an amazing model to get assistive technology to people who need it, and it’s a tough sector because if you try to commercialize in a more conventional way, the technology can get very expensive. This truly makes assistive technology more accessible to everyone.”
Research and Development: OpenAT Joysticks and More
Throughout 2023, our Research and Development team was hard at work on the OpenAT Joystick project.
Funded by the Government of Canada’s Accessible Technology Program, the OpenAT Joysticks are designed to be cost-effective and customizable, in contrast to many of the commercial options available. They are intended to increase digital access by making phones, tablets, and computers easier to use, building on the work of our previous projects like the LipSync. These joysticks can also be used for Adapted Gaming.
In October, we published four joysticks for wide release: the Oak Compact Joystick, the Spruce Mini Joystick, the Forest Joystick Mouse Hub, and the Ivy Nunchuck Joystick Adapter. In the last quarter of 2023, we began hosting joystick build events to provide these devices for Canadians with disabilities.
Our Research and Development team has also been hard at work on developing the new LipSync. The new LipSync is designed to be lighter and easier to mount with a newly separated LipSync Hub and Joystick, and perhaps most importantly, improves the user experience by making it easier for a user to set-up and control the LipSync independently without outside assistance. We’re currently planning for a wide release early this year.
We added 29 new devices to the Device Library in 2023.
#HackingForTheHolidays
This year, we were blown away by the support of our #HackingForTheHolidays (new window) campaign. We hit our goal, raising $108,685, and delivering 2,519 toys to children with disabilities across Canada — 1,092 toys, 1,382 switches, and 45 joysticks.
We hosted 109 build events in all 10 provinces, with participants including schools, corporate supporters, and community organizations.
“Thank you for giving my little three year old the access to play, like any three year old wants to. These toys have now given her the independence to play on her own,” shares Carey, mother of Evie, who had Linkimals toys adapted for her. “Having switch adapted toys that make her able to not only play with the toys but do it on her own and not having someone always do it for her is amazing.”
We couldn’t have done it without your support.
Thank You!
Thank you to everyone in the Makers Making Change community and all of our supporters for making 2023 such a success. We can’t wait for what’s in store for 2024.
This post originally appeared on the Makers Making Change(new window) website.