Innovators Seek Affordable Technology To Help Disabled

BERKELEY, CA — Sunday afternoon at the University of California at Berkeley about 100 students, innovators, makers and people with disabilities gathered for the closing of TOM:Berkeley, a technology building marathon, according to university officials.

The marathon started wrapping up at 3:30 p.m. in Jacobs Hall and should result in prototypes of devices that could make daily life easier for people with disabilities.

TOM:Berkeley is a new event from the Tikkun Olam Makers community, which is a worldwide movement to improve the lives of people with disabilities, university officials said.

The marathon started Friday in Jacobs Hall and in the CITRIS Invention Lab at the university where people used 3D printers, laser cutters, water jet cutters and electronics fabricators to build the prototypes.

Sunday afternoon the inventors were showing off their prototypes.

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More than a billion people around the world live with one or more disabilities that limit their independence and inclusion in society, according to university officials.

Even though products exist to make the lives of the disabled easier, a limited market keeps prices high for those products.

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TOM's architect of innovation Rebecca Fuhrman said in a statement that innovators at TOM:Berkeley will be working to create affordable products.

TOM:Berkeley organizer and UC Berkeley student Drew McPherson said in a statement, "I see so much skill and potential amongst my fellow students and see so many activities that my friends and I in the disability community struggle with or simply cannot do because no functional or affordable solution exists."

— Bay City News; Image via Public Domain Pictures