Taylor is on the softball team at her high school with the ability to launch a ball using a switch-activated wiffleball thrower. Taylor works with an occupational therapist within the school district who reached out on behalf of her to trial adapted switches. Taylor tested and compared two manufactured switches from the Demonstration Center and the 3D-printed handheld switch fabricated by the Makers program.
Taylor concluded that the 3D-printed switch worked best for her, as it fit perfectly within her palm, giving her the ability to activate the ball launcher without miss-hits. While the switch allows Taylor to participate in her school extracurricular activity, it also allows her to use the switch for other preferred tasks. Due to the flexibility of customizing assistive technology devices, the Makers program works closely with the individual requiring a device, or even their occupational therapist, to provide the best outcome for the user.
Taylor’s occupational therapist emailed the Makers program to let us know her thoughts. Taylor’s words were “Dear Illinois Assistive Technology Project, Thank you for my switch. It fits perfectly in my hand. I can use my thumb to turn it on within one second. One of the things I use it with is the wiffleball thrower. I even used it at practice with my softball team. Thank you so much for making this for me with your 3-D printer.”
