Grassroot efforts at building things for improving the lives of the disabled has been done, although there are reasons for why they don’t get as much exposure. Reading about your Lego Mindstorms project made me think of what people were doing in early 90s Cuba.
When the Soviets left, Cubans relied on things like Olivo Verde (I think it was called, translated to Green Olive), a couple of books encouraged by Che Guevara to reuse items for all sorts of things. Some of those things included motorised wheelchairs for some folks to get around.
There is a website I believe named after one of those Cuban projects, the Rikimbili, which outlines a lot of the stuff.
Link: https://www.ernestooroza.com/rikimbili/ (there is more on that site).
Grassroot efforts at building things for improving the lives of the disabled has been done, although there are reasons for why they don’t get as much exposure. Reading about your Lego Mindstorms project made me think of what people were doing in early 90s Cuba.
When the Soviets left, Cubans relied on things like Olivo Verde (I think it was called, translated to Green Olive), a couple of books encouraged by Che Guevara to reuse items for all sorts of things. Some of those things included motorised wheelchairs for some folks to get around.
There is a website I believe named after one of those Cuban projects, the Rikimbili, which outlines a lot of the stuff.
Link: https://www.ernestooroza.com/rikimbili/ (there is more on that site).