Assistive Technology’s DIY Approach Gains Traction
Assistive Technology’s DIY Approach Gains Traction
https://spectrum.ieee.org/assistive-technology-macgyver
Publish Date: 2026-01-31 10:24:00
Source Domain: spectrum.ieee.org
Assistive technology is expensive, and many people with disabilities live on fixed incomes. Disabled assistive tech users also must contend with equipment that was often designed without any capacity to be repaired or modified. But assistive tech users ultimately need the functionality they need—a wheelchair that isn’t constantly needing to be charged, perhaps, or a hearing aid that doesn’t amplify all background noise equally. Assistive tech “makers,“ who can hack and modify existing assistive tech, have always been in high demand.
Therese Willkomm, emeritus professor of occupational therapy at the University of New Hampshire, has written three books cataloging her more than 2,000 assistive technology hacks. Wilkomm says she aims to keep her assistive tech hacks costing less than five dollars.
She’s come to be known internationally as the “MacGyver of Assistive Technology” and has presented more than 600 workshops and assistive tech maker days across 42 states and 14 countries.
IEEE Spectrum sat down with Willkomm ahead of her latest assistive tech Maker Day workshop, on Saturday, 31 Jan., at the Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA) conference in Orlando. Over the course of the conversation, she discussed the evolution of assistive technology over 40 years, the urgent need for affordable communication devices, and why the DIY movement matters now more than ever.
IEEE Spectrum: What got you started in assistive technology?
Therese Wilkomm: I grew up in Wisconsin where my father had a machine shop and worked on dairy and hog farms. At age ten, I started building and making things. A cousin was in a farm accident and needed modifications to his tractor, which introduced me to welding. In college, I enrolled in vocational rehabilitation and learned about rehab engineering—assistive technology wasn’t coined until 1988 with the Technology-Related Assistance Act. In 1979, Gregg Vanderheiden came to the University of Wisconsin-Stout and…
