This past week the 13 or 14 of us went to The Cotting School in Lexington (The first school in the nation for children with disabilities), and got to meet a couple students / participants of a non-profit called Waypoint Adventure (an adventure/growth/learning program for people with disabilities). It was great meeting everyone and getting to know them, and towards the end of the week we began  working on projects for assisting our interviewees, whether it be day to day struggles, or simply helping out with something that they've always wanted to do. Izzy and I are starting to work on a project for a boy named Tanis, who has muscular dystrophy, a condition that causes progressive weakness and loss of muscle mass. While at the Cotting School, his teacher told us that he had trouble raising his hand in class, and through some divergent/convergent thinking, Izzy and I are now working on a project to help raise his hand in class. Tanis sits in a wheelchair, so we are pretty sure that our final product will feature some sort of attachment to his wheelchair. So far, our prototype has featured a pulley system that he can use to help raise his hand, and another idea was to create an electric powered device that responds to him giving a little bit of energy with his arm. One of our main focuses is to make sure that Tanis can retain a sense of independence with this action, so we do not want the device to do everything for him.
Next week, I think we should be able to begin on our final project, and have a good understanding on what we want to achieve. I also think we should begin engineering the final product in order to ensure progress.  We'll have the opportunity to visit Tanis again, and ask him any questions about what he'd like to see out of our process and final product. Very excited for what's to come.