ADAPT Milestones

One of us, 16-year-old Lingxi Kong, has a little brother, Lingsen, who has a physical disability that prevents him from pressing the small buttons on toys. Instead of purchasing them commercially for $100+, Lingxi searched online and taught herself to adapt toys to receive input from a large button she 3D-printed.

Lingxi wanted to fundraise to create more toys to donate, so she applied to the MOTT Million Dollar Challenge and the Pennsylvania Society for Biomedical Research essay contest. Over the next few months, she won $750! Much of this was spent on initial prototyping.

Wanting to expand this initiative, Lingxi chartered ADAPT as a club at The Baldwin School.

Lingxi became a fellow of the Germination Project, where she introduced ADAPT to the other fellows. The pooling of our resources and expertise is foundational for ADAPT’s success today.

The ADAPT team met regularly at The Haverford School to adapt toys and print 3D buttons. We designed and produced zipper pulls and universal cuffs. ADAPT partnered with the Temple Makerspace and TechOwl to accommodate increased production. ADAPT also raised $400+ on GoFundMe.

The ADAPT team completed its first donation to Occupational Therapist Daniel Fichter, totalling almost 400 pieces of assistive technology.

The Germination and Baldwin ADAPT team meet regularly to work on donations for the Overbrook School for the Blind (OSB) and St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children, as well as donations to individuals who reached out to ADAPT directly. We are working with the physical and occupational therapists at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) to design keyguards for their AACs.