The Ajax Public Library is improving accessibility for community members and helping them overcome the steep costs associated with assistive devices.
Assistive devices made from affordable materials and open-source designs are being displayed at the Ajax Library’s MakerSpace each week. The devices are designed by Makers Making Change (MMC), a non-profit group committed to improving accessibility for everyone. Visitors to the library are invited to build the devices using the MakerSpace equipment, or to take inspiration from them and design their own practical devices.
The program to get community members involved with making practical devices was started in September 2024 by the library’s coordinator of technology Christofer Zorn.
“ It spawns conversations with people,” he said. “It spawns interactions with our staff based on curiosity, which is what we were hoping for initially.”
Zorn said the program started with a request from a community member. A visitor asked for the library’s help to build a whisper phone for her son, a device used to help children practice speaking and reading. The devices are expensive online, Zorn said, but the library staff were able to build it with the MakerSpace’s 3D printer.
The experience inspired the library staff to look into more ways they can help visitors who require assistive devices. During their search, they discovered Makers Making Change, and reached out to form a partnership in order to bring MMC’s affordable assistive solutions to the library.
Makers Making Change is a volunteer program, and is part of the Neil Squire Society. Stephan Dobri is part of the program’s engineering team, and he said that MMC initially began with the goal of making devices that could help people use computers by blowing and pulling in air through a tube, with a device called a sip-and-puff. From there, it grew to involve many other forms of assistive devices, with the goal of keeping the costs low and the designs open-source.
“ Assistive tech is really expensive,” Dobri said. “There’s usually about a 300 per cent markup.”
On top of that, he explained that high demand can also make it difficult for people to access this technology. By keeping the designs open source, MMC ensures that the devices can be made by anyone, and the community can work together to improve and customize the designs.
Dobri said he often gets to witness people’s excitement over this concept – aspiring makers get the joy of learning and creating something that can help people, and people who need the supports get access to them.
“ A lot of times it’s like working with kids and schools and stuff,” he said. “ So you’ve got kids without disabilities working directly with kids with disabilities so they can see how a device they might make could help improve the lives of lives of someone else or just make things a little bit easier.”
Partnering with organizations like schools and libraries helps the volunteers at Makers Making Change widen their reach.
Since the program started at the Ajax Library late last year, Zorn said they have seen upwards of 70 people come through the space and interact with the devices. Seniors have been especially interested in the devices, he explained, with many visitors interested in things like bottle openers to help with arthritic concerns, and reading bars, which help people with vision or focus troubles.
“ It’s been, across the board, very well universally accepted and helpful to the people who need these types of devices,” said Zorn.
A big benefit of having the MakerSpace is that it significantly lowers the cost of producing these devices for the user. According to Zorn, the real barrier isn’t learning how to make these devices, it’s access to the expensive machines needed to build them – things like 3D printers or glow forges could cost thousands of dollars, for example, whereas materials can be as little as two dollars per device.
In addition to improving accessibility, the program helps to spark creativity and expose people to the wide range of things that are possible with the technology in the MakerSpace. Zorn expressed that he was initially concerned the MakerSpace would be used exclusively for novelty objects, and he wanted to show people they could use the space for useful, practical things that could help improve people’s day-to-day lives.
“The ultimate goal of this project for me is to have one of our customers create something that they can donate back to the community and then be usable by somebody else.”
Zorn has been working with community partners to help grow the program and increase its impact. In the future, he said they plan to offer services more customized to their user base, as well as a wider range of devices like clickers and pointers to help users use technology.
Interested residents can visit the Ajax Library MakerSpace to see and build the devices, or can get involved with Makers Making Change directly to request an assistive device or become a volunteer maker.