In the final part of her story on the Adaptive Design Association, Time Warner Cable News’ Kristen Shaughnessy introduces you to Tamara Morgan, a woman whose life and career path were changed by the organization.
Tamara Morgan is of a very small stature and has brittle bone disease. She says with very simple creations, the team at Adaptive Design changed her life.
"I can't afford for anyone to bump into me or accidentally trip over me or slightly hit me with their bag, so I needed a way to make me much more visible,” Morgan says.
The design team created a pole that lights up and attached it to her wheelchair. The results were instantaneous.
"Within the first day of having it and just rolling through the halls of school, people will just part this way,” Morgan says. “Instead of just like, 'Oh my god I didn't see you there.' People would just make way because they saw the light."
Tamara now works as the development and outreach coordinator at Adaptive Design. Her desk, like most of the team's creations, is made of corrugated cardboard.
They use layers to create everything from iPad holders to customized rocking chairs.
Most projects costs between $50 and $1,000. Families pay what they can, the rest is paid for through grants and donations, or when it's written in a child's individualized education plan.
The Adaptive Design team also makes hundreds of symbols that can be used by those who cannot see or hear, or have difficulty. A person is taught that each symbol means something.
“'We're going to the gym next' or 'it's time for lunch' or 'let's go outside' or 'it's time for music class.' So that the child knows where they're going and also can choose. Because it's like a menu as well as a schedule,” says Alex Truesdell, founder of Adaptive Design Association.
Truesdell has created a model she would like replicated throughout the world, and it already is in at least three other countries. The 2010 Census shows there are 68 million people in the U.S. with disabilities. She says very simple solutions could be found to help every one of them.
For more information, visit adaptivedesign.org.