Help Us Adapt 500 Toys for Kids With Disabilities This Holiday Season!
Making Toys Accessible
Over the last year, we have met therapists and families across Canada that need toys that are accessible to kids with disabilities. These toys have a “switch jack” connected to it that allows assistive technology to plug into the toy to activate it. The switch jack is just like a headphone jack on a phone or computer, but allow an alternate way to turn the toy on or make it function.
Commercially, assistive switches and switch-accessible toys are expensive, and easily exceed $100 each. That high cost leaves many families and therapists supporting kids with disabilities, without the interactive toys and access methods that are crucial to childhood development.
Neil Squire’s Makers Making Change program are experts at purchasing battery operated toys, taking them apart, and adding in the switch jacks. Often, the cost to adapt the toy is $5 of parts or less, and the adaptation is done by students, community makers and corporate volunteers at our events.
A donation of $50 can purchase a toy and provide the parts to make a switch, giving a child everything they need to play with a new toy this year.
Our Goal: Adapt 500 Toys for Families and Therapists Across Canada
Leading into the holidays, we want to:
- Adapt 500 toys for families and therapists.
- Host at least 20 events across Canada.
- Raise $25,000 to support this programming.
Over the campaign, we’ll share stories from families, therapists and our volunteers that are closing this access gap. We are planning toy hackathon events where students, volunteers, and corporate partners will build adapt toys for kids with disabilities. Your donation and support can help us fund the toys and parts, make the adaptations, and close this access gap this holiday season.
This campaign is part of Neil Squire's annual #PoweredToEnable fundraising campaign.
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A donation of $50 can purchase a toy and provide the parts to make a switch, giving a child everything they need to play with a new toy this year.
Get Involved!
DonateHelp fund the toys, switches and parts to reach our goal and support the program. | Donate! | Request a Toy
If you need switch accessible
toys, please make a request on our
website | Request Toys | Host a Toy Hackathon
See our scheduled events or get
in touch if you want to host an event by December 3rd!
| Plan an Event |
About Neil Squire
"We use Technology, Knowledge, and Passion to Empower Canadians with Disabilities.” Neil Squire has been revolutionizing the lives of Canadians with disabilities since 1984 through accessible assistive technology. Our work is focused on four distinct areas: Innovation, Digital Literacy, Employment, and Assistive Technology. Our work enables people with disabilities to achieve their goals, reach their full potential and continue living life to the fullest.
About Makers Making Change
Makers Making Change, a program of Neil Squire, connects people with disabilities and disability professionals to makers, who can assist in fabricating assistive technologies from our open-source library of assistive technology (Open AT). There are over 185 devices, designed both by our staff and by our community of volunteers. These devices document where to source parts, provide downloadable 3d printable files, code and assembly instructions. Anyone can build these devices, but we work with students, engineers and other maker volunteers to help build these solutions for people that need assistive technology in their community. https://www.makersmakingchange.com
We have hosted over 180 buildathon events across North America, and deployed over 5,000 assistive technologies to people with disabilities and disability organizations. We are focusing on building this model to foster social connection, empathy, codesign, and partnerships that cross typical social-economic barriers, providing customized solutions at a fraction of the cost of commercial offerings through action-based philanthropy.
#HackingForTheHolidays #PoweredToEnable #AssistiveTechnology
Highlights
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$5 covers the cost of wires, cables and switch jacks to adapt a toy.
- 16 granted
Cover the cost of 1 battery operated toy to be adapted by one of
our volunteers, like a singing animal or a bubble blower.
Help feed and fuel our volunteer makers at our events all across Canada.
Help us build future capacity. Cover the cost of to start another Makers Making Change chapter, including 3D printer and filament, electronic parts, hand tools, and marketing materials.
