We’ve recently had the chance to host a build event in Summerside, PEI, with the help of Isaac, a student who’s been doing some amazing things in the field of assistive technology.

One morning in December of 2022, Isaac woke up and he couldn’t see anything.

“My vision had just completely gone,” he shares.

While he underwent tests and appointments with ophthalmologists, he was put in touch with the Atlantic Provinces Special Education Authority (APSEA) (new window) for assistive technology to help him in his education. However, he soon noticed a lack of educational technologies for students with cortical visual impairments (CVI).

Working with APSEA and other clinicians, he began using the coding skills he was learning in high school to develop a software that uses adaptive switches to help students with CVI learn word recognition and visual processing. Isaac had to get used to coding with vision loss, using a software to read the code back to him, but in short order he developed an impressive software.

He continued to make connections with more clinicians and professionals, adding more features to the software at their request over the last year and a half.

“I just kept building and growing it,” he says.

While his vision loss ended up being temporary, his passion for assistive technology remains. He founded a non-profit, Bridgify Innovations (new window), to support the work he was doing and make assistive technology that’s accessible to those who need it, noting that he was dismayed at the cost of commercial options available.

“I don’t have to spend money to be able to go to school and learn every day. So why should an individual who was born with a disability have to? That was always my biggest motive,” he says. “I just want to make this free and accessible to everyone and not put any restrictions on it.”

Working primarily with adaptive switch users with a focus on affordable DIY assistive technology, it wasn’t a surprise he connected with Neil Squire’s Makers Making Change (new window) program. He had wanted to engage students at his high school in building adaptive switches, so he helped organize a build event with Makers Making Change earlier this year.

In all, about 10 participants made nearly 30 switches.

“It was phenomenal. I mean we had a lot of students there who obviously have an interest in engineering, like the electrical aspect of it, in terms of soldering, but we also had some students there who literally just wanted to be there to make a difference and try to have an impact,” he says.

“It was a very welcoming environment, and everyone felt comfortable participating in the build.”

Now, having graduated high school, he’s heading to Dalhousie University (new window) this fall, intending to major in microbiology and immunology, and biochemistry and molecular biology.

He has been putting the final touches on his software over the summer, and wants to focus on creating some new projects while going to school. Isaac wants to continue working with Makers Making Change to potentially host more build events in the future at Dalhousie.

This post originally appeared on the Makers Making Change (new window) website.