10,000 Devices Built for People With Disabilities: Makers Making Change Hits the Milestone at Build Event With Full Circle at Electronic Arts

We’ve hit a huge milestone — with the help of our volunteers, our community, and our supporters, we’ve built 10,000 assistive devices for people with disabilities. 

We officially celebrated the milestone at a build event hosted in partnership with Full Circle™, an Electronic Arts video game development studio on Thursday, October 12th. The event was the latest of several build-a-thons hosted at EA Vancouver over the years. Full Circle is a gold sponsor of our #HackingForTheHolidays campaign. 

“I’m tremendously proud of our team to have hit the 10,000 assistive device milestone. To see the explosion of interest in Makers Making Change and Neil Squire is just incredible,” says Gary Birch, Executive Director of Neil Squire. “It’s an amazing model to get assistive technology to people who need it, and it’s a tough sector because if you try to commercialize in a more conventional way, the technology can get very expensive. This truly makes assistive technology more accessible to everyone.” 

 

Over 40 participants, including Full Circle volunteers, as well as clinicians, and persons with disabilities worked in pairs at EA Vancouver to build 20 Oak Joysticks and 20 Ivy Nunchuck Joystick Adapters which will be donated to local children’s hospitals and rehab centres. The joysticks allow persons with disabilities to more easily use their phones, tablets, and computers, and can be used for Adapted Gaming.  

“The Makers Making Change program offers an incredible opportunity for makers like Full Circle to see the impact accessible technology can have for persons with disabilities,” said Mike McCartney, Executive Producer at Full Circle. “We were honoured to partner with Neil Squire for this event and celebrate their 10,000th build together.” 

Brenda Bailey, the BC Minister of Jobs, Economic Development and Innovation, was at the build event and praised the efforts to make gaming more accessible for people with disabilities. 

"I'm passionate about video games and building a community around them. It saddens me to think that some miss out due to lack of accessibility tech. We’ve got the people here in BC to come up with the solutions, and Neil Squire, Makers Making Change, and the volunteers here really speak to that. We’ve got so much to be proud of, for your work in ensuring we don’t leave people behind. It’s so important,” she said. 

 

This event is one of hundreds of similar Makers Making Change events happening across Canada through to the end of December as part of Neil Squire’s #HackingForTheHolidays campaign. Hacking for the Holidays has a fundraising goal of $100,000 and the aim of building 2,000 toys, switches, and video game joysticks for children with disabilities.