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Category: activism

Incredible collaborations continue

Published May 18, 2026 by Liz Henry

I owe a big post about Andrei’s powerchair controls, Olga’s trip to Moldova, and all the work that went into that project!  But as a quick note, I’ll just say we got the improved gear to Andrei!

Olga spent several days in his small town in the north western corner of Moldova, setting up the controls and testing various options for joystick, seating, and positioning. Andrei is now set up with a chin controlled joystick for the chair and I believe also for gaming.

Olga’s mom, and her mom’s boyfriend, also came along since they were in Moldova too. They were able to help out with some improvements to the ramp in and out of the house, and just to hang out, make friends, and make the celebration even nicer.

I want to tell this story in photos!

Olga leaving from San Francisco airport. Not shown: enormous rolling suitcase full of wheelchair modification stuff!

shot from behind as a person in a powerchair approaches the san francisco airport departure gate

The very sturdy, custom built powerchairs at the airport in Istanbul! They don’t bother with manual chairs, I think, and have these absolute beasts of powerchairs. You can put bags on the back ledge or even stand on it. Olga was impressed I think.

a sturdy powerchair that looks custom built

Andrei in the chair, the first time they got the new chin control joystick working. You can read a lot into his smile.

man with powerchair smiling slightly

Andrei and his dog Bobby hitting the open road. Honestly it still gives me chills because I think of the times I have had weeks or longer in bed or at home. Going out for the first time after that, the world seems so big and loud and vibrant, the colors amazing. everything is moving, the sky feels huge and I always have huge feelings about it. It can’t be taken for granted!!! I am glad the world is now at Andrei’s feet.

Olga, Maria (Andrei’s mom), Margarita (Olga’s mom) and Slava. Olga’s mom was in Moldova in the capital, visiting her boyfriend and they drove up to Andrei’s village to help out. The families became friends over the few days they were together working on the chair, and on some small modifications to the house!

four people smiling for a selfie

A recent shot of Andrei in high visibility jacket, out with his dog riding in a specially rigged up backpack. I like the bright yellow!

man in powerchair wearing a bright yellow jacket, dog in his backpack

Thank you everyone who contributed — We had so many donors giving what they could to make this happen!  And especially, thanks to Levan, Bruce, and Rose from Easy Does It Services for all the hours of work they put in, Olga for all of her coordination, repair, testing, and the trip itself — with help, advice, and gear contributed as well from Vince from ILRCSF and Morgan, John, and Ash from the CIL.

Andrei is working on getting his Romanian citizenship confirmed and also —  if you check our “Team” page — he is now working for GOAT as a consultant! He is a good sys admin/ IT person (which we need – I have no time!!) and so nice to hang out with (virtually, on telegram) and I’m also enjoying his posts on this blog — we’re all looking forward to more collaboration!

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2025 summary from GOAT

Published February 14, 2026 by Liz Henry

This was meant to go out as a newsletter at the end of last year, and I only just realized that it got stuck in our newsletter back end! So here is our  little summary of 2025 for you all on the blog, insteead.

We’ve had an active year so far at GOAT!

In the summer, we made great progress on preservation work. Our archive team has catalogued nearly 150 interesting, useful, and rare items from the Enders Archive. We have scanned 56 items which are now uploaded to the Internet Archive with the physical materials hosted at the Prelinger Library in San Francisco, where you can browse them in person!

We are looking for donations to support our paid intern to do more high-speed book scanning, to pay our program director Olga to hold events

At our workshops so far in 2025, we distributed 45 “Fix it Kits” in a pilot program. These bags, about the size of a large pencil pouch for a binder, are packed full of useful wheelchair tools and repair materials. They also include a zine on wheelchair, walker, and rollator maintenance.

Future kits and version 2 of the zine workbook are now under construction. We are making two different kits: one, the Workshop Kit, which is more complete and with more tools. It is meant for our events, with one-on-one work with GOAT volunteers and attendees, to walk attendees through inspecting their devices to gather information and adapt the tools to their needs. The second style, our Street Kit, contains minimal tools, but more “fasteners” like cable ties, velcro straps, and gaffer tape. It is designed to pass out more casually on the street or at more fast paced events that don’t allow focused one-on-one work. There is also a broader range of tools and supplies in our Grab Bag so that we can customize the Workshop and Street kits individually, to fit someone’s particular dexterity and their mobility gear.

Your donations to GOAT can help us buy the materials and tools for these free repair kits! And if you would like to buy supplies directly, we have a wishlist.

Collaborations

GOAT is working with other community partners in many ways this year.

We are marshalling volunteers for weekly visits to the CIL’s Wheelhouse, where we are helping to organize and store their inventory of donated assistive tech. It’s like a warehouse and workshop, or a huge wheelchair pick & pull. Some of what we are doing is breaking down unrepairable powerchairs for parts, but I think there is a meta level of developing a larger crew of people who understand the AT resources of the Bay Area and are able to tell people about them. And these folks may also be the pool of future mobility gear repair and refurbishment techs that our “ecosystem” desperately needs!

liz and olga smiling on an outdoor patio, liz in Pansy Division tshirt and Olga in a plaid flannel
Liz and Olga at the SFDCC

We are working with University of Washington’s a11yhood project team and CREATE as a community partner, to make DIY assistive tech more widely and freely available, findable, and curatable!

We stocked the SF Disability Cultural Center with a Fix-It workbook and a full toolkit for minor wheelchair repair and maintenance.

We collaborated with Easy Does It Services, ILRCSF, the CIL, and other orgs for our project to Get Andrei Rolling Again.

And with other local projects like C.R.I.P.S.R.I.S.E. we are working to spread knowledge of how to use 3D scanning and printing for assistive tech in the community.

logo with neon splash text, tools, soldering iron, wheelchair, Chronically Rad Independent People Solving & Repairing in Sick Empowerment
logo with neon splash text, tools, soldering iron, wheelchair

Recent blog posts

For more details on GOAT’s activities in the last few months, have a look at our blog posts:

What we do

Grassroots Open Assistive Tech’s purpose is to document, curate, preserve, make accessible, and freely share assistive technology designs and information under open licenses, as well as providing coordination and education to affiliated communities.

We support disabled people in making their designs and builds available for public good, and in having free to use designs available to them for their own use.

Please donate!

GOAT is a 501(c)(3) organization and your donations are tax deductible. EIN: 93-3313503. 

We are also registered with Benevity for employer-matched donations!

You can donate via PayPal or via check.

PayPal donation email: liz@openassistivetech.org.

To avoid our paying transaction fees, you can send a physical check made out to Grassroots Open Assistive Tech, to GOAT, PO Box 720011, San Francisco, CA 94172.

 

Subscribe to GOAT Notes

Subscription is free, but optionally, you can pay to subscribe via Buttondown, as a way to support our organization and its activities! https://buttondown.com/GoatNotes#subscribe-form

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An update on Andrei’s powerchair

Published February 9, 2026 by Liz Henry

Last fall, GOAT started collaborating with Andrei, a wheelchair user in Moldova, to help out with his Permobil F5 joystick issues. Here’s an update! We have ended up in a more long term collaboration between Easy Does It Services, ILRCSF, occupational therapist Judi Rogers, and the CIL in Berkeley to get the necessary equipment and expertise so he can get outside this spring. It has been really delightful getting to know Andrei and working with everyone!

screenshot of a zoom meeting with Andrei and family, Olga, and Liz

While Andrei’s fluency in English is great, we end up with our meetings half in Russian and half in English since Levan and Olga both also speak Russian. I turn on Google Translate in my phone to get near-instant written translation of the meeting. I have even learned a few Russian words though they are the bare minimum of what you might absorb easily: Yes, No, OK (horosho) and Thanks!

Levan from EDI and Olga are doing a ton of work to provide Andrei with several different options to control his powerchair and also to give him some flexible options for game and computer control that are less dependent on hand strength and dexterity. This includes chin, head, and attendant controls as well as a mini joystick and new armrest/table, new batteries, more positioning / seating options, and all the stuff to mount these things onto the chair. Some of that is from scavenged or donated supplies and some is new (funded by YOU!)

Andrei already experiments with his computer control setup a lot, so I am always learning about new software from him. For example, he recommends Handy as free and open source software for speech to text. As a bonus it is very privacy protecting (and fast) as it doesn’t send your voice or text to the cloud, it works locally on your devices and is highly customizable.  He also talked a bit about VoiceBot, which sounds interesting, but is less free. And this device called a Razer Tartarus, extremely cool visually, which used to work well for him, but which now he needs to adapt in some way so that he can control it.

Bruce is always sending new ideas and contacting manufactorers for potential devices, like mouth control via the MouthPad , and others have stepped in to suggest drug therapies that can slow the progression of Andrei’s condition, something that will become possible if either Genentech opens a deal for compassionate therapy with his country, or if his dual citizenship with his father’s country comes through.

We have planned out Olga’s visit to Moldova, but have not yet pinned down a travel date. It should be pretty close, though. We are thinking if not before, then maybe in March just after we get back from the CSUN Assistive Technology conference.

Thank you for all your donations that are making this collaboration possible!

The point that comes through very strongly in this project ,as well as even our most casual workshop, is that THE TECHNOLOGY IS NOT ENOUGH. You can have the fanciest,  most expensive assistive tech in the world, and it means nothing if you don’t have expert help or advice in making it work for you — the role of occupational or rehab therapists.  AND, you need resources for maintenance, repair, spare parts, service manuals, and help to implement all of this, which is also something that can’t be done in one half hour encounter, you need to try things, iterate, and adjust in collaboration.

We all need a “pit crew” to keep us rolling!

 

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