Category: events

GOAT recently joined colleagues from University of Washington’s CREATE lab and University of Michigan at the CSUN Assistive Tech conference in San Diego. We shared booth space to talk with people in the exhibitor hall about open source assistive tech, the A11yhood database, and all of GOAT’s programs.

We really enjoyed the panels and resulting conversations relating to open source and open culture.  Gregg Vanderheiden on his organization’s new tool for looking up open source assistive tech tools, Learn and Try. This is for the kinds of assistive tech that help you access computers, tablets, and phones, to make “technology” of that sort more inclusive. If you need tech to read, study, take notes, get on the internet, this is a great site where you can find useful help. It has a very elegant, thoughtfully designed user interface, and is aimed at a level where you can be a parent of a disabled kid, or a teacher, without any background in accessible technology, and learn about it.  Rather than searching something like “assisted communication” or “dyslexia” you can click on the bit that says I need help with (Speaking)  or (Reading) and get a list of software tools with links out to download and try them, or enable them in settings if they’re already on your devices.

Jennifer Mankoff and Josh Miele, collaborators of GOAT, held a session on the Open Source Accessibility Summit. It was amazing in 2025 and will be happening again in 2026! https://2025.allthingsopen.org/open-source-accessibility-summit . I hope we can make it this year!

We came to CSUN equipped to do some inspection and minor maintenance for mobility gear, but in practice, we mostly just talked with people and gave out our free repair kits. The conference itself had a much heavier focus on tech for blind and visually impaired people than it did on mobility tech. (Repairing braillers might be in our future, as the demand is high!)   In practice, what this meant for me at the conference was that I spent a fair amount of time zooming around to chase down and accost random strangers who were using wheelchairs, and offered them our free toolkits.  They seemed to appreciate the very targeted and useful swag!

Our road trip was really fun, and we spent time having dinners and lunches with our collaborators from CREATE and other orgs, talking about our joint projects and where to take them!

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From the Bay Area mutual aid crew!

Note, Olga and Liz will be at this event to give out Mini Fix it Kits, accessories. We will set up to do wheelchair and other assistive tech inspections in the swap space! And, we will happily teach you some useful preventative maintenance, and can also help to connect you with repair resources for more complex problems.

April 25th 2026 from 1-5pm in Berkeley! Don’t miss our second mutual aid swap: Medical Equipment Edition!

📣We’re back!!! After a hugely successful first mutual aid swap, we are finally ready to host our second swap.

This time we’re asking for medical supplies, equipment and food donations! We know that cuts to Medicaid are impending and it’s expensive as fuck to be alive right now. We know many disabled people have a surplus of medical supplies in their garage/closet/storage unit. We want to help distribute it to folks in our neighborhood who need it!

Come by from 1-5pm on Saturday, April 25th on the corner of Rose and Sacramento St. in Berkeley.

You can help by coming to the swap, bringing any extra supplies that you have, or come to pick up supplies you need.

Image 1: Mutual Aid Swap *Medical Equipment Edition*. Saturday 4/25 from 1-5pm. “Bring what you have. Take what you need. *Masks Required*. Corner of Rose and Sacramento St Berkeley CA. Images of grocery bags, toilet paper, a grabber, covid tests, CPAP machine, kn95 masks and a blue rollator.

Call for Donations. Drop off Hours: Saturday 4/25 1-5pm Corner of Rose + Sacramento, Berkeley. Food donations: frozen meals + veggies, apples + pears, bananas + citrus, onion + root veggies, peanut + nut butters, canned tuna + chicken, instant meals, bread + butter, protein bars, shelf stable juice, electrolytes, flour + sugar, salt + spices, rice + grains, cereal + sweets, pasta sauce. NON food-donations: individually wrapped toilet paper, new toiletries, plastic straws, clean/new linens

Medical Equipment Requests – shower chairs, rollators, walkers, canes, crutches, knee scooters, grab bars, seat cushions, grabbers, knee/back/arm/leg braces or slings, CPAP machine parts or accessories, Air purifier, transfer benches, toilet risers, commodes.

Medical Supply Requests – Depends/diapers, gloves, chucks, wet wipes, gauze pads/rolls, bandaids, ice packs, period products, electrolytes, distilled water, wound care supplies, compression socks, chest binders, specialty pillows (pregnancy/mastectomy)

Mutual Aid Swap. Bring what you have. Take what you need. Swap hours: Sat 4/24: 1-5pm Corner of Rose + Sacramento, Berkeley. Come as you are + leave with any of the following: free groceries, medical equipment and supplies, masks and COVID rapid tests! It’s ok to come empty handed and leave with a lot! We need each other now more than ever. ❤️

ACCESS INFO: wheelchair accessible backyard. Masks required for entry. Limited street parking. 0.3 miles from North Berkeley BART. Rain or shine! Covered canopy. Sat 4/25 1-5pm. Bring what you have. Take what you need.

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