Assistive Tech Library
The Assistive Tech Library at ETHOS Lab is a collection of 3D-printed assistive tools available for people with disabilities, disabled communities, caregivers, and support workers to explore, test, and borrow.
Assistive Tech Library Hackathon
We are organising a hackathon to co-create a website for The ETHOS Assistive Tech Library – one that is accessible to various disabilities. The event will take place at the Lab on November 10th, 2pm – 5pm.
The Assistive Tech Library is a collection of 3D-printed assistive tools available for people with disabilities, disabled communities, caregivers, and support workers to explore, test, and borrow.
We are inviting developers and people with disabilities to share resources, knowledge, and experience to create an accessible website, usable for all.
We invite anyone who is interested in:
- web accessibility
- 3D modelling
- assistive technology
- disability justice
To sign up, please send us an email to ethos@itu.dk and include the following:
- Name and pronouns
- Accessibility needs (if any)
- Why you’d like to come to the hackaton
A few words about the project
The library currently consists of a selection of objects adapted from open-source designs shared through Thingiverse. If there is a tool for accessibility that could support your daily life, the idea is that you will be able to submit a request to ETHOS Lab. We will then contact you to create and modify it together, in conversation with your needs, experiences, and ideas.
The idea is to create an ever-shifting library of assistive technologies: tools shaped by the needs, knowledge, and experiences of the people who use them. In line with crip-technoscience perspectives, we centre the work of disabled people as knowers, makers and experts on their own lives.
The library is also a collaborative project. It aims to create opportunities for people to work together in developing assistive technologies that makes sense within their context. We want to see where these collaboration dynamics can take us. What kinds of tools emerge when people with disabilities, students, researchers, designers, and people is other forms of expertise come together?
The library is therefore not only a collection of objects, but a living space for experimentation, access, and community-centred design. It is also a way to democratise access to tools and resources, making it something that can reach beyond the walls of the university. By sharing resources, knowledge, and experiences, we hope the library can support accessibility while also intervening in the structures that often make assistive technologies difficult to access, afford, adapt, or customize.
We are currently testing and experimenting together to hopefully launch the first iteration of The Assistive Tech Library this semester. We hope to collaborate with collectives focused on disability, as well as people who would be interested in helping with testing the accessibility of the website and developing 3D modelling prototypes.
If you would like to read more about the story of the project, the button below will take you the blogpost where Sabine and Luis share the story and how it inspired the project.