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How To Make It Cheap contains easy to make plans for commonly useful low-tech adaptive devices like dressing sticks, furniture risers, and utensil grip modifications. This book is available nowhere else -- we have saved it from oblivion! #AssistiveTech #DIY #DisabilityJustice

How to Make It Cheap Manual Vol 1 : The Independence Factory : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive Home Made Manual on how to make adaptive equipment. This book includes diagrams of popular and commonly needed low-tech assistive devices for daily living....

Another groovy, 70s-tastic, DIY assistive tech book scanned and uploaded by the archivist team at GOAT! How To Make It Cheap, Vol. 1, by The Independence Factory of Middletown, Ohio. archive.org/details/chea...

Good Junk + Creativity = Great Low-End Technology! : Rocklage, Lynne : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive DIY assistive tech and adaptive tech plans, materials lists, photos, and diagrams written by teachers and an assistive tech expert. Repurposing common, cheap...

From GOAT's scans of rare DIY assistive tech! "Good Junk" has detailed plans & materials lists for building control switches for electronics, out of common household objects. Build simple switch control devices for people with low dexterity, for VERY CHEAP.

archive.org/details/good...

Wheelchairs with Lithium-ion Batteries: Can They Fly? - Wheelchair Travel The definitive guide to international regulations concerning air travel with lithium-ion powered wheelchairs and mobility devices.

Unreasonably amused by this headline. WE WISH!!!!! wheelchairtravel.org/lithium-ion-... #JetPacks #FlyingWheelchair #RocketPowerchair

If you've bought a Shoprider 'Vienna' powerchair you've probably noticed it start to creak, loudly, after a week or two. The cure (h/t Lewis Mobility) is to replace the pin through the seat pillar with an M8 50mm cap-head bolt, two 'repair' washers and a nylok nut.

Thomas Quiter, President & Board of Directors. In 2015, he was denied a suitable wheelchair despite Medicaid and private insurance. A crowdfunded solution showed the need for open source mobility equipment, bypassing restrictive IP laws and supporting the right to repair.

A screenshot of a facebook post from Liz Henry Coming up Feb. 22! Wheelchair/ powerchair maintenance workshop! LOVE YOUR RIDE Free workshop to learn maintenance for your mobility gear Wheelchairs, powerchairs, scooters, walkers, rollators, etc. Time: Saturday, Feb. 22, 2:00pm - 4:00pm Location: ILRCSF, 825 Howard Street - San Francisco FREE TOOLKIT AND INSTRUCTION MANUAL We will work with you to make a custom maintenance and emergency repair kit! You will get to take home a small, portable bag with tools and materials customized for you. There is also a workbook to fill out with information about your mobility device or devices, and we will look for service manuals and other information to give you. Please register by emailing info@ilrcsf.org, or call or text Vincent @ 415-609-2555. A joint workshop by Grassroots Open Assistive Tech and ILRCSF Liz Henry, liz@openassistivetech.org, https://openassistivetech.org Vincent Lopez, vincent@ilrcsf.org, Marisol Ferrante, marisol@ilrcsf.org, Nick Feldman Assistive Tech Lending Library

Attn Bay Area friends with mobility devices!
(a friend shared this on fb and since it's public I feel ok sharing here, since I know a lot of people are no longer using fb)

light blue background. Top right, blue/green DRC logo. Right in bold navy blue text: Webinar. Under, orange thin line. Image of a black male-presenting wheelchair user wearing a plaid shirt, behind him stands a black male-presenting individual with a tan sweater. Kneeling by the wheelchair user's wheel is a black individual. They're all in a white and navy blue living room with a gray couch to the left and a black bookshelf behind them. Under image, navy blue text reads: Habitability and Tenants' Rights. Under, with a navy blue background and white text reads: When: February 18th, 2025 at 1:00pm.

Have you had a repair or pest issue that a landlord just would not fix? This workshop will share red flags, best practices, and options for addressing an unsafe living environment while protecting your housing.

Register at the link: www.disabilityrightsca.org/events/habit...

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Read more about what Grassroots Open Assistive Tech is up to in our newsletter, GOAT Notes!
buttondown.com/GoatNotes/ar...
#AssistiveTech #RightToRepair #DisabilityJustice

And like, given this books, could I build this wheelchair lift? No. But given that a wheelchair van costs something like $40,000 USD, I could probably pay someone to make it, or something based on these designs, for a more reasonable cost.

SPECIFICATIONS AND DRAWINGS FOR A WHEELCHAIR LIFT : Jack Hart : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive Specifications and Drawings for a Wheelchair LiftDetailed plans to construct a wheelchair lift for a van or other vehicle, from 1977, with many diagrams,...

Here's one of the scans we worked on today, Specifications and Drawings for a Wheelchair Lift, from 1977. archive.org/details/spec... #AssistiveTech #DIY

Our rare and useful books and materials with details of DIY assistive tech - how to build things ranging from low tech aids for daily living, to motorized wheelchair lifts for a ban, to powerchair components - will be housed at the Prelinger Library in San Francisco, available to the public.

For the life of me I can't figure out exactly why power wheelchair repair is so specialized. why can't I just go to the neighborhood mechanic and be like fix this like everybody else? why do I have to wait for repair orders and all this other stuff?

The lack of accountability in the industry is such a problem! I think Right to Repair laws are just one piece of the puzzle that may help better wheelchair repair ecosystems evolve -- much like we have bike or phone or care repair shops!

It took a Berkeley woman 14 months to get a new wheelchair. She isn’t the only one facing extreme delays Insurance coverage issues and industry consolidation are working against the 2 million wheelchair users in the U.S.

really glad I got the chance to write this. on the perfect storm of insurance BS, ableism and private equity that makes finding a good wheelchair nearly impossible www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/sole...

That looks like such a good idea, to go with the various wheelchair and scooter chargers!

GOAT also has a program to catalog and archive DIY assistive tech books, papers, construction diagrams, sewing patterns, and other material. Our catalog in progress is at www.librarything.com/catalog/open..., with scans uploaded to the Internet Archive. #AssistiveTech

Our next in-person workshop is for tinkering with, maintaining, and repairing mobility devices like walkers, wheelchairs, powerchairs, and scooters. Feb 22, 2-4pm, at the ILRCSF in San Francisco.

www.openassistivetech.org/love-your-ri...

#AssistiveTech #DisabliityJustice #RightToRepair

We're Grassroots Open Assistive Tech, a nonprofit org in the US, sharing free information on DIY assistive and adaptive technology. #AssistiveTech #DisabilityJustice #RightToRepair