Podcast Transcription
Hello and welcome to this podcast. I’m Mike Marotta from the Assistive Technology Center at Advancing Opportunities.
This interview was recorded during the 2011 Texas Assistive Technology Network Statewide Conference in Houston.
Therese Willkomm from the University of New Hampshire presented two workshops at the conference. The morning session was titled: Creating Solutions with Loc-Line, Flag Pole Holders and More. The session description reads: This session will demonstrate how to use materials that are flexible, bendable, and can be repositioned to create quick assistive technology solutions in minutes.
Her afternoon session was titled: 101 Solutions You Can Make with PVC, Stratacore, and Acrylic. The session description reads: Learn how to make over 100 assistive technology solutions using various types of plastics such as PVC, Stratacore, and acrylic.
Mike Marotta (MM): We are talking with Therese about her workshops today that she presented at the conference. You presented two workshops about building low-tech tools from scratch with basic – would you call them household items?
Therese Willkomm (TW): Yes, everyday items that you could find around the home or in your community.
MM: Yeah, that was very cool. Unfortunately, for the people listening to the podcast they are missing out on the visual of what was there and how many different things were passed around. We will make sure we give a web address at the end where people can see some of the things you made for sure. How did you start down this road of building these tools like this?
TW: Well, I think it goes back to growing up in Wisconsin and farming and learning about making do with what you have and all the things you can do with duct tape and bailing wire. So then I started hanging out at the hardware store and discovering other fasteners, different new tapes, specialty tapes, adhesives, and thinking wow you could do this or you could do that. Then I remember going to school once and there was kids with a lot of significant disabilities that needed so many assistive technology solutions and I thought well this is easy if you just have these basic tools and materials. You could whip stuff up and looking at things in your environment that are adjustable, bendable, shapeable. If you combine Green wire with Tommy Tape and VHB tape you can make the Twizzle Stick out of it that bends and shapes. Then I discovered Loc-Line that was used in industry. Loc-Line is these balls and sockets that you can reposition and that’s adjustable. Then I just started discovering things at grocery stores like Swiffer Mops and Swiffer Dusters that adjust and telescope and so I am seeing things all the time.
At election time, I was looking at the signs that they were making – election signs – out of and thought man, that’s a cool plastic. It’s the Polly propylene corrugated plastic, I wonder what I can do with those signs. So I talked to elected officials and said can I have your signs after the elections over with and started making things out of corrugated plastic. So a lot of it I discovered by accident just by mucking around, playing with stuff.
MM: Right, and your background – I think I heard you say this before -you are an OT? Correct?
TW: No, I’m not. I’m the first non-OT to be hired in the occupational therapy department.
MM: OK, that’s what I heard you say before. You were in the occupational therapy department.
TW: Right, so I teach in the occupational therapy department at University of New Hampshire. I teach several assistive technology courses. My background – I have over 25 years of experience providing and managing assistive technology programs. My PhD is in Rehabilitation Technology from the University of Pittsburgh.
MM: OK, now here’s the one question I didn’t want to tell you before, I wanted to keep it a surprise. Your favorite store – Home Depot or The Dollar Store?
TW: Home Depot.
MM: Dollar Store- a close second?
TW: No, I don’t like The Dollar Store. The Dollar Store – it is a hit or miss. A lot of the stuff is cheap stuff, it’s not very durable. So I like Home Depot better because I’m looking for fabrication tools and materials and I often can’t get the materials I’m looking for at The Dollar Store.
MM: That makes sense. Will you be seen sometimes in your local Home Depot just wandering the aisles?
TW: Yes! And everybody comes up to me and says to help you, can I help you. Then I have to keep saying, no I’m just looking!
MM: I’m browsing!
TW: Yes, it’s like going to the museum.
MM: Exactly, that’s great. Now could you describe a couple of the solutions you showed today the people listening?
TW: Yeah, my newest one is an iPad stand made out of Stratacore because that is that corrugated plastic. If you score Stratacore against the grain and bend it, you get this nice durable rigid kind of mount , bendable. I can take two pieces of Stratacore and put it together and bend it the right way and quickly make an iPad stand that is adjustable, flexible, foldable deck and fit in the backpack and cost less than two dollars to make and takes about 3 min. to put together.
Another newest invention is my Twizzle Stick. That’s the one I was telling you, the green wire folded in half and then wrapped up in a spiral manner using VHB Tape and then wrapped up in a spiral manner using the Tommy Tape. You can bend that, shape that and the other thing was showing all the things you can do with Loc-Line. You can Loc-Line at Modularhose.com has the cheapest price on it and it comes in ¼ inch ½ inch or ¾ inch. You can make an iPad stand that fits on top of a wheelchair or something that can mount on a desk. Again, it’s flexible, repositionable, you can put switches on it, you can put a cup holder, all kinds of cool things you can do with Loc-Line and green wire.
MM: That’s excellent. I saw a bunch of PVC things in there. What are some of your big PVC inventions?
TW: PVC – you can do just about anything with PVC. Putting it together. One of my inventions this past year has been the PVC Transformer. It’s made up of 15 components – so there is 10 different PVC joints plus color-coded PVC pipe with color-coded stripes. You can take it apart and put it back together into 20 different assistive technology solutions. It all fits into a Ziploc bag and then made a recipe sheet that you just look at the colored pieces and put them together in that way and you have an assistive technology solution. Then if you combine three-quarter inch PVC with flagpole holders – flagpole holders are flexible, adjustable. You can mount all sorts of things using flagpole holders and you can pick up a flagpole holder at the hardware store for like three bucks. You combine that with PVC pipe and man you can mount a lot of things.
MM: That’s great. Now I know in your session, you mentioned to the people in the room that you have a channel on YouTube that you have a bunch of your videos on.
TW: Yes. So if you go to ATinNH YouTube Channel – if you just Google that and then select the link, it will take you to the channel. Then you get to the playlist and there is a menu so things are sorted like making things out of acrylic. So there is some 20 clips on that. There’s a bunch of clips on wheelchair maintenance and repair. A bunch of clips on making things with epoxy putty, things on making an interactive whiteboard on-the-fly. All sorts of clips. There are about 300 – a little over 300 video clips.
MM: Excellent. Now if people have other questions or want to get in touch with you what’s the best way to reach you?
TW: I tell people to give me a call. My number is 603-491-6555 – that is the fastest, easiest way to track me down.
MM: Very good well thank you for your time today.
TW: Thank you.
Thanks for listening to this podcast. For more information about the Texas Assistive Technology Network, visit the website at www.texasat.net
For more information about the Assistive Technology Center at Advancing Opportunities, visit the website at www.assistivetechnologycenter.org
The music used in this podcast is by Kevin MacLeod and is used with permission under the Creative Commons License 3.0
