Make for People with Disabilities at the Bay Area Makeathon

Google.org is supporting the Bay Area Makeathon by TOM, a group specializing in running makeathons for assistive technology, and UCP of the North Bay, a non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the quality of life of people with disabilities.

Part of the Google Impact Challenge: Disabilities, the 3-day makeathon will take place at TechShop in San Francisco. Applications are open until August 10, and Makers, designers, engineers, hobbyists, and professionals are invited to apply.

The Bay Area Makeathon is a meeting point of people who understand specific needs facing people with disabilities (“need-knowers”) and multidisciplinary Makers. For 72 hours they will work inside TechShop, using the tools of modern fabrication to develop prototypes that could address the challenges presented.

Bay Area Makeathon is the fruit of labor of numerous collaborators, including the 3D printing giant Stratasys, bringing Makerbot to every TOM makeathon, as well as Flextronics, Particle (formerly Spark), and others. Prototypes will be evaluated by a professional panel that includes veteran innovators and industry leaders such as former product experience lead at Google X, Tom Chi, as well as senior engineering leaders from Google.

Watch this video to see previous projects from the last TOM makeathon, as reported by Make: magazine last year.

The Makeathon kick-off event will take place August 14 at Google’s San Francisco office. The Bay Area Makeathon: will take place September 11-13.