Westwood Elementary School’s Joshua Soliz, Lilly Rugg and Enrique Hernandez won first place in three categories in the Make:Able Challenge.
Challenge participants design and make a product or prototype that improves the day-to-day life of someone with a disability or the elderly.
The Westwood students won first prize in the following categories:
• Best Inspirational Story (Under 14)
• Best Use of Customization (Under 14)
• Best Showcase of Interactive Design (Under 14)
The Education Accelerated by Service and Technology students initially earned accolades for the elements of the project in March at the National EAST Conference in Hot Springs.
The students’ project included "Luti Learns Her Friends" and "Luti's Learning Board."
Luti, a blind non-verbal Westwood student, is learning how to manage school and build relationships with teachers, therapists and aids while learning the beginnings of Braille through "Luti's Learning Board.”
When Luti meets a teacher, therapist or aid, she reaches for their lanyard. The first solution was to 3-D print a tile with a raised shape that represented the person Luti was meeting. This tile is worn on a person's lanyard so Luti can identify the individual independently.
“Luti's Learning Board” is a second solution to helping Luti navigate new relationships.
Each person Luti routinely works with at school has a shape assignment on a learning board in Braille. The first letter of a teacher’s name is embedded into the learning board as Braille to allow Luti to match the Braille letter to the individual.
The Make:able Challenge is an international challenge with submissions from all over the world!
Make:able is an assistive technology design challenge, brought to you by PrintLab, Autodesk and partners.
