Wearable electronics researcher and educator, Lara Grant, lead a focus group with interested participants in creating “wearable technology”. Lara teaches Wearable and Soft Interactions at the California College of the Arts. She spent over an hour with participants showing them some of her designs and answering questions.
When Lara’s class begins again in January, her students will be working with our participants to create a product that can help them with things that they may struggle with. For example, one participant has a difficult time zipping up his sweater due to his physical disability, what can be designed to help make this task a little easier?
The collaboration with Lara began after she worked on a wearable communication device for a girl in New Jersey. With the desire to work with individuals with disabilities closer to home, she reached out to Ability Now to see if we would like to work with her and her students. Needless to say, our participants were thrilled to be part to be part of the collaboration. We can’t wait to say what everyone comes up with!