Everyone Is a Designer Workshop
Jan 28 2025
event: workshop in-person
See Details
205 Richmond Street West, Toronto
5:00pm 8:30pm

The ‘Everyone is a Designer’ workshop aims to help members of the public learn low-fidelity prototyping skills for tinkering with physical materials and bringing their creative ideas to life. We believe that experimenting with technology should be accessible to a wide variety of people. Our lab comprises designers and engineers working with persons with disabilities to design better and more accessible products, services, systems and spaces. We have worked with the Canadian National Institute of the Blind to create cross-sensory technologies that use audio and haptic-tactile cues to convey the information that is typically conveyed through visual screen-based interfaces. The workshop will demonstrate some of our projects to help inspire new ideas, including a glove that uses force feedback and a refreshable haptic display to make digital objects and interfaces able to be felt and grasped and a spatial audio map that can help people navigate and search in virtual worlds, or simply “hear” visual interfaces as well as see them. Participants will learn techniques such as simple and accessible electronics prototyping (using “microcontrollers,” which connect computers with electric circuits and sensors) and low-fidelity crafting materials such as cardboard, clay, Lego bricks, pipe cleaners and so forth to build their own inventions. Diverse participants of all ages, including those with sensory disabilities, are encouraged to attend.

Participants

Peter Coppin, Zainab Husain, David Barter, Alvaro Quevedo, Robert Ingino, Tamara Crasto, Shamayma Mobin, Michael Pivar, Simerneet Singh

Accessibility

Who should visitors contact with questions regarding accessibility?
Zainab Husain
Is this venue accessible by wheelchair or similar mobility devices? This includes access to washrooms and all aspects of programming/events.
Yes
Can people get to the venue using accessible transit?
Yes