GOOD WORKS
BABY’S GOT WHEELS A toy car, adapted by Tetra volunteer Mohammad Othman, E.I.T., provides two-year-old Dana Claridge with improved mobility. She has Rett syndrome and cannot walk or push the car’s foot pedal. Modifications to the car’s circuitry turned the car’s horn into an accelerator — which Dana can push, allowing her to get around like a two- year-old should. -photo by Shane Kuhn/inFokus Design time she presses that button to accelerate the car, and is now able to move with more independence,” says Mr. Othman, a specialist service technician with Honeywell Building Solutions in Calgary. The switch is big enough and sensitive enough to be identified and operated by a child with limited motor skills, explains Mr. Othman, who graduated with a master’s degree in engineering design from McMaster University in 2012. The focus of his master’s thesis was medical device product design, so volunteering with Tetra over the past year has been a great fit. “I joined Tetra because I wanted to follow my passion for design and inventing and to give back to my community,” he says. “It fills me with gratitude when I receive a sincere thank you from my clients. Also, seeing a person with a disability, especially a child, all ecstatic about a new adaptive toy or device is very rewarding.” Collaborating with other volunteers has also been a highlight of his volunteer experience. “I’m surrounded by a creative bunch: machinists, wood workers, engineers and more. We have a well-equipped machine shop here in Calgary, and we can pretty much make anything you can think of,” he says. So far, his other projects have included an adaptive guitar strummer similar to the one being built for Mr. Skelly and wheel- chair modifications, including making new parts for a worn out pommel to help a client push out of a wheelchair. “My experience with Tetra has inspired me and opened my eyes to see the pressing needs of people with disabilities,” says Mr. Othman. “There is always work that needs to be done — work that can drastically enhance someone's standard of living.”
There may not always be a lot of engineering involved in the designs, he says, but it’s always fun, not to mention a wonderful opportunity to meet interesting and inspiring people.
a loss of movement and coordination. She can’t walk but she can push the big red button, whose function was rewired by Tetra volunteer Mohammad Othman, E.I.T. He modified the car’s circuitry so that the foot pedal, which Dana can’t press, was replaced by the button, turning the horn into the accelerator. He also added on a harness for safety. The design is modelled after the University of Delaware’s GoBabyGo project, in which toy cars are modified to provide mobility for children with crawling and walking problems. “Since Dana is unable to walk by herself, she bursts into laughter every
GO BABY
As two-year-old Dana Claridge sits in her GoBabyGo car, a huge smile covers her face. She pushes a big red button mounted on the steering wheel and the toy car, powered by a 12-volt battery, moves forward. Dana has Rett syndrome, a neurodevelopmental disorder that causes
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