Makers Making Change Holiday Hackathon

The Pulse

Today on The Pulse, we’re featuring the Makers Making Change Holiday Hackathon! Last month in Burnaby, B.C., host Grant Hardy attended this event, hosted by Makers Making Change, a program offered through the Neil Squire Society in British Columbia. The event offered an opportunity for volunteers to adapt 250 toys to donate to kids with disabilities across Canada.

In this episode, Grant speaks with members of the Makers Making Change team, volunteers, students, and people who will benefit from the adapted toys too!

Grant’s first guest is Reed Schrad, the Web Product Owner at Makers Making Change to give Grant some more information about the event.

Then, Grant speaks with Charlie Kiers, a volunteer at the Holiday Hackathon, who shows us how an adaptation is made to a popular Fisher Price toy.

Ethan Ho, a high school student and volunteer, stopped by to give Grant some more insight into what kind of work is needed to adapt the toys and what kinds of difference these toys will make.

At the event was Marie Brown, an occupational therapist with SET BC who told Grant about the importance of equitable access to inclusive play.

Plus, Evie and Carey Lotz are a mother and daughter pair that were at the Holiday Hackathon. Evie has benefited from one of the toys through the Makers program and Carie spoke to Grant about how important these toys are to kids with disabilities.

Find us on Twitter: @AMIaudio #PulseAMI

To contact the Pulse: [e-mail]

Check out our website: https://www.ami.ca/ThePulse

About AMI

AMI is a not-for-profit media company that entertains, informs and empowers Canadians who are blind or partially sighted. Operating three broadcast services, AMI-tv and AMI-audio in English and AMI-télé in French, AMI’s vision is to establish and support a voice for Canadians with disabilities, representing their interests, concerns and values through inclusion, representation, accessible media, reflection, representation and portrayal.

Learn more at AMI.ca

Connect on Twitter @AccessibleMedia

On Instagram @accessiblemediainc

On Facebook at @AccessibleMediaInc

On TikTok @accessiblemediainc