Join Us — HuskyADAPT

Join HuskyADAPT!

There are many ways for you to get involved with HuskyADAPT, whether through volunteering, joining our design team, and more. Read more below to learn how you can join our community!

Newsletter & Social Media

One of the easiest ways to get involved with HuskyADAPT is to join our bi-monthly newsletter! This is where we post our latest events and opportunities, as well as resources for how to connect with the community. You can also learn more about our organization by following our social media.

Join our Newsletter

HuskyADAPT Social Media

We recently tabled at Admitted Students Day. Thank you to everyone who dropped by to learn about HuskyADAPT, it was great meeting everyone! We hope to see you guys at future events.

We recently had a toy adaptation event where attendees successfully adapted eight toys! Some fun toys we adapted included a pair of walkie talkies, dice rollers, and a colorful gear plane. Thank you to everyone who attended! Stay tuned for our next e

Last week we held our first toy adaptation of Spring Quarter! Our 15 attendees adapted lots of toys that were freshly introduced to our workshops including various transparent gear vehicles and a puppy bubble machine. Thank you to everyone who attend

A couple weeks ago, we hosted our Spring Community Meeting, where we recapped the progress that the design teams and GoBabyGo have been making throughout the year, and announced up coming events. We also tested out a new outreach activity, where part

At our final toy adaptation event of last quarter, attendees were able to adapt new toys as well as repair some broken ones. Some of the toys adapted included a transparent light-up car, and tornado lamp, while a spin art toy and penguin slide were g

Interested in joining the GoBabyGo team? Leadership applications for GoBabyGo will open on Wednesday 4/3. If you’re interested in having a more in-depth role in GoBabyGo, fill out our Google Form in bio, or scan our QR code. Applications close

Are you interested in joining the HuskyADAPT leadership team and leading future club activities? Applications for our student executive chairs are now open! The application is located in the linktree in our bio. Contact Mia Hofman (miahoff@uw.edu) wi

We recently had a design industry panel event featuring Mark Harniss from UW Rehabilitation Medicine and Brennen Johnston from WATAP. We learned about the accessible design and assistive technology fields as well as what it is like to have a career i

We’re excited to invite you to our Spring Community Meeting! At this event, we will be going over our plans for the upcoming quarter, and testing out a new outreach activity! Come ready to make and have fun! Everyone is welcome to attend. Pleas

A couple of weeks ago, our six design teams presented their prototypes and design progress to the larger community, where they were able to gain feedback from industry professionals. They displayed innovative low-fidelity prototypes created using ski

We recently held our first fix-it event two weeks ago. Attendees were able to successfully troubleshoot and repair 6 toys that needed some TLC Including some bubble whales and an Uno Attack. Thank you to all who attended and we’ll see you at ou

Come attend HuskyADAPT’s Design Industry Panel to learn how to incorporate accessibility and inclusivity into a fulfilling career! Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions and hear industry professionals’ experiences in access

Our design teams have been hard at work tackling accessibility challenges in the community. Come and give them feedback on their current prototypes, and hear about their design journey! All are welcome and light refreshments will be served. Contact N

A couple weeks ago, the design teams toured Microsoft’s Advanced Prototyping Center and Inclusive Technology Lab, where they learned about the intersections between accessibility and industry. Thank you Eric Roth and Solomon Romney for hosting

We had an incredible toy adaptation workshop at the beginning of February! We were able to successfully adapt 12 toys- one of our highest records for a single event! Our attendees adapted various toys including a fiber optic lamp, card shuffler, and

Thank you to everyone that came out to our community meeting last week. It was so great seeing everyone! Our design teams were able to update the community on their prototyping progress, GoBabyGo recapped on their most recent toy adaptation, and we g

Looking to represent HuskyADAPT around campus? Pre-order your very own HuskyADAPT shirt by February 20th, with an estimated delivery date of mid-March. The T-shirts are Comfort Colors 100% Cotton T-shirt, are offered for sizes XS-XXL, and cost $20. O

We’re so excited to announce that HuskyADAPT now has a newly redesigned website! Shout out to our amazing communications chairs for working super hard on this project — you can check it out at https://www.huskyadapt.me.uw.edu/ (link in bi

We kicked off the new quarter with another successful adaptation workshop! We adapted 7 toys, including dancing ducks, a “fire” breathing dinosaur, and a new dancing robot! Thanks to all who attended and volunteered.

Reminder, there is

Meet our 2023-2024 HuskyADAPT Ambassadors. We have nine dedicated and remarkable individuals working behind-the-scenes to help aid the exec board run HuskyADAPT as efficiently as possible!

Volunteer Opportunities

Play is an important part of childhood development, as it enhances motor skills, introduces the idea of cause and effect, and promotes independence. Yet, children with disabilities often cannot use commercial toys as they were originally designed. For example, a child with spinal muscular atrophy, a genetic disease that impacts muscle strength, may struggle to press a small button to activate a toy. An adapted toy, however, can be activated by an alternate method such as moving a finger or tilting one’s head. This adaptation process makes toys more accessible to children of all abilities while fostering education, equity, and inclusion. Learn more about the toy adaptation process here.
Signing up for our newsletter is a MUST if you want to be able to participate in our Toy Adaptation events! This is the ONLY way you can hear about and RSVP for our events! We host Toy Adaptations and Fix-It events (events where we figure out how to fix an adapted toy that wasn’t completed during the first toy adaptation) around once a month for two hours, with no obligation to participate in other Toy Adaptation events other than the one that you signed up for. We send a newsletter once every two weeks with all the information about our Toy Adaptation events (time and whether it is Fix-it or a Toy Adaptation), and oftentimes, spots are limited so we encourage you to sign up right as the newsletter comes out and mark your calendar to save the date! You can sign up for our newsletter here or learn more about becoming a Lead Toy Adapter here.
With a goal to create a surplus of adaptable toys for the community, we could use your help with adapting them! HuskyADAPT hosts toy adaptation workshops all year long with any kind of group no matter the age, interest, or ability level. We've hosted beginner workshops with university students, elementary to high school students, clinicians, summer programs, and many more. If you believe your group would be interested in adapting toys for the community, please fill out this form.
Go Baby Go! is a national, community-based research, design and outreach program that began in 2012 with founder Dr. Cole Galloway at the University of Delaware. UW Go Baby Go! modifies battery operated, ride-on cars to meet the specific needs of each child in order to provide mobility and socialization for children with limited motor function. These build events take place typically once a quarter over the weekend, and lasts for around 5 hours. The location of the event is usually somewhere on the UW campus. You can sign up to volunteer at one of these events using this link, and hear about other GoBabyGo activities by following their social media (@uw_gbg) and Twitter (@UW GoBabyGo). Learn more about GoBabyGo here!
HuskyADAPT Ambassadors are student leaders who support the Student Exec Board by attending events such as toy adaptations and design team presentations, and overall serve as leaders for the HuskyADAPT community. Ambassadors are asked to attend at least one HuskyADAPT event per month.
Applications typically open in spring along with the Student Executive Team applications. Learn about our current ambassadors here!

Join a Design Team

Design teams collaborate with individuals from the community, oftentimes clinicians, to define accessibility-related challenges. Student teams work together typically for 3 academic quarters to brainstorm a solution and then prototype a design. These solutions could be 3D-printed devices, mobile phone apps, or adapted sports equipment, just to name a few.

Applications typically open in October and are currently full for the 2023-2024 school year.

Design teams are a year-long commitment, with each member expected to dedicate 5 hours per week on the project. Design teams are composed of 5-6 individuals who are dedicated to creating inclusive and sustainable accessible design and play technology for individuals with disabilities. We look for highly motivated and dedicated students who are eager to learn and open to sharing their ideas. There is no specific experience level, year, or major required in order to join a team – oftentimes we look for a diverse set of individuals so that we could have lots of different perspectives on the challenge!

Learn more