POWER hack tinkering sessions – Electronics, battery tech for powerchairs, electric scooters, and other electric powered assistive tech
Accessorize – Lights, reflectors, bags, cane holders, and other attachments and modifications
Show & Tell – Talk about some of your own assistive tech you’ve invented, made, repaired, or modified for a peer skill share. Works in progress are fine too!
Upcoming events
GOAT Learning Lab: Power Wheelchair Checkup
GOAT Space, behind Bookmark Bookstore, 10th & Broadway, Oakland
Details of GOAT Learning Lab: Power Wheelchair Checkup
Learn a simple visual and hands-on inspection of a wheelchair. We’ll look for loose hardware, worn parts, damaged cables, caster problems, tire issues and other signs that something may need maintenance - plus when to stop and get additional help.
No experience needed, questions are welcome.Physical location: GOAT space (behind Bookmark Bookstore in Oakland)
Remote participation: https://meet.google.com/uwx-bbzy-axk
Lesson plan: 2026-09 Learning Lab NotesGOAT Learning Lab: Wheels, Casters & Hairballs
GOAT Space, behind Bookmark Bookstore, 10th & Broadway, Oakland
Details of GOAT Learning Lab: Wheels, Casters & Hairballs
Wheelchair wheels collect an astonishing amount of hair and debris. We'll learn how common wheel and caster assemblies fit together, remove selected wheels, clean them, inspect the hardware and put everything back together.
No experience needed, questions are welcome.Physical location: GOAT space (behind Bookmark Bookstore in Oakland)
Remote participation: https://meet.google.com/uwx-bbzy-axk
Lesson plan: 2026-09 Learning Lab NotesGOAT Learning Lab: Power Chair Batteries 101
GOAT Space, behind Bookmark Bookstore, 10th & Broadway, Oakland
Details of GOAT Learning Lab: Power Chair Batteries 101
What powers a power wheelchair? We'll open up a chair, find its batteries, look at how they're connected and discuss common battery problems. Participants will practice documenting connections, disconnecting/reconnecting batteries and doing basic voltage checks. No experience needed, questions are welcome.
Physical location: GOAT space (behind Bookmark Bookstore in Oakland)
Remote participation: https://meet.google.com/uwx-bbzy-axk
Lesson plan: 2026-09 Learning Lab NotesPromise and Pitfalls of Inclusive Design and Disability Technology (Jutta Trevinus and Liz Henry)
University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley
Details of Promise and Pitfalls of Inclusive Design and Disability Technology (Jutta Trevinus and Liz Henry)
Monday, October 19, 2026
5:00 — 6:30 PM
Eugene Jarvis Auditorium,
Grimes Engineering Center
RSVP here!
Save the event to your bCal here!
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Inclusive design and disability technology — whether it uses AI or not — aims to make life easier and more fulfilling for people with disabilities. In this moderated discussion, two experts share their perspectives on the possibilities and perils of contemporary advances in the field of assistive technology.
Jutta Treviranus, Director and Professor at the Inclusive Design Research Centre, within the Ontario College of Art & Design University, will speak to the ever-expanding role of AI. As a statistical replicator feeding on available data, AI inexorably favours the average, popular, or profitable. Disability means you are an outlier in population data and the things you need have no economies of scale. The only common data characteristic of disability is sufficient distance from the majority that common things are not designed for you. While AI is uncannily good at helping achieve the average, AI eliminates difference. When decisions are made about people who are not average, this can lead to mechanized digital eugenics. This has grave implications for disabled people and minority communities but also for human survival.
Liz Henry, Executive Director of Grassroots Open Assistive Tech, will speak to the notion of designing ourselves as “sustainable cyborgs.” There exist many efforts to create assistive technology, often with fabulous cutting-edge engineering. People also love to create custom tools and materials for a particular disabled person, at hackathons and so on. What does designing for repairability and maintenance mean? What’s the experience like for someone to get their wheelchair repaired? What happens to the miracle devices when they break? And how can we save ourselves from the mountains of garbage and e-waste that overwhelm us? Henry will discuss repairability, design, and the promises of open source and open culture!
Past events
CSUN assistive technology conference
Tune Up Tuesday
Tune Up Tuesday
Take it apart!
Catalogue and scan
Metadata curation