Colorado students in Northglenn High School's Engineering Pathway took up the challenge to design accessible tools for sports and games. Using feedback from their peers, they created prototypes for playing wheelchair soccer, basketball, baseball, and table top versions of popular games like pool, air hockey, and board games. Working in teams, each student took on different responsibilities including design, prototyping, marketing, and budget. After researching their topic, each team used a variety of craft and maker technologies to develop and test an initial prototype while also considering the expense for materials and creating mockups for advertisements or marketing campaigns. We really loved seeing the creativity and thought they put into applying universal design principles to their favorite sports and games to make play accessible for all.
Student Showcase - Sports and Games
These designs were all created for classmates with vision impairments, limited upper body mobility, and for play in a wheelchair.
Soccer designs included frames that attached to the wheelchair for bumping the ball and an option for kicking the ball.
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Baseball and Basketball designs addressed limited arm movement. The baseball bat is shorter and lighter to accommodate one-handed use and swinging above the arms of the wheelchair. Basketball holder is designed for a smaller basketball. The rest of the basketball design (not shown) is based on a catapult mechanism.
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Pool, Air Hockey, and Cup Pong. These designs are scaled down and portable to address limited reach from a wheelchair. Pool table has raised edges, smaller balls, and cue props to assist with angles and shooting. Cup pong uses magnets to arrange cups in different patterns and the ball is attached to a string so players do not have to chase missed balls. Air hockey uses a slingshot mechanism to shoot discs through holes to the other side of the board.
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Board Games: Sorry, Connect 4, Candy Land, Uno. All of these designs incorporate tactile elements to identify colors or shapes, some include audio components to read card instructions, or braille.
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