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Class presentations a showcase for student innovations

In previous project collaborations, students in Auburn University’s Rehabilitation Assistive Technology courses have worked with individuals with disabilities to conceptualize items that could enable them to live more independently.

The creative process yielded such ideas as a wheelchair-accessible garden, which would enable an individual to tend plants on a raised platform.

This year, the students in RSED 5230 and 6230 were asked to take an additional step for the first time.

“This year, we didn’t just put the concept on paper,” said Scott Renner, coordinator of assistive technology for Auburn University’s Center for Disability Research and Service. “We asked them to develop the whole prototype.”

The students’ collective ingenuity will be on display Thursday, March 29, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. in Student Center 2222. Renner said members of the general public are invited to see the students presentations, which include such items as a specially-modified oven accessible to individuals with paraplegia.

“We’ve got some really cool projects,” Renner said.

The Center for Disability Research and Service, housed within the College of Education’s Department of Special Education, Rehabilitation and Counseling, has been instrumental in building awareness about assistive technology and the ways in which it helps individuals with disabilities. In the assistive technology course, rehabilitation and special education students from the College of Education collaborate with industrial design students from the College of Architecture, Design and Construction. The students work with individuals with disabilities and develop new product concepts aimed at improving the quality of clients’ lives.

Last Updated: Mar 27, 2012