RadMad Shoutout.

 A shoutout from my old lab, the amazing makerspace UC Berkeley Rad Mad Disability Lab

Let’s give a round of applause to our alumni Hari!! Hari, previously our lead in Team Propaganda, has recently been awarded the 2024 National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship.
The RadMad Lab is proud of you!!

 

This time last year

 At the RadMad Disability Lab at UC Berkeley

I got covered by Berkeley Grad Diversity

I got covered by Grad Diversity 

Full article: https://grad.berkeley.edu/news/announcements/a-thirst-for-education-and-autism-advocacy/

“Though it was a sense of duty that initially drew me to participate in GiGS as a mentor, it has been my absolute privilege to know Hari and be a small support in his journey to graduate school. I am positive he will accomplish wonderful things at Vanderbilt and beyond.” Lindsey Burnside. Hari's GiGs mentor

...

Hari is very clear about what drives his passion for higher education. “A college degree and above is what gets you a seat at the table, where you get to be part of the conversion about who gets access to spaces, funding, and resources. If we want to see change, belonging, acceptance, and other solutions for autistics, we need to see more autistics in higher ed. And we need to see all profiles of autistics, including the most marginalized autistics, for this change to be meaningful.”

But for Hari, just having a seat at the table is not enough. “I want to be able to redefine the table itself, whether it’s academically or in advocacy. A fair and inclusive world does not just have to be a myth. We need to work actively to make the possibility a reality. Everyone deserves the same opportunity of education, inclusion, and belonging.”

Research on Accessibility

 

Attention: Students/ Faculty/Alumnus of Berkeley who identifies as a disabled person

Our unique makerspace Disability Lab is doing a research project on accessibility.

If you are interested in participating, please contact
everett_wool@berkeley.edu or (818) 450-6743

www.disabilitylab.berkeley.edu

The RadMad Disability Lab at UC Berkeley

Lab Website,  Facebook . Twitter@RadMadLab1

The Spring 2020 URAP Team

Semester 4

Semester 3

Week 1: 9/16: : First Lab meeting for the incoming URAP' ers. We had a sizable turnout, not just students from Cal but also from UCLA. I love the collaboration. 

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Semester 2

Week 1: 2/5: Rad Mad Lab is Back: First Lab meeting for the incoming URAP' ers.

Good to be back at this very unique "makerspace" lab at UC Berkeley 

2/12: The meeting focused on projects for the semester and deciding the teams. http://disability.jp/madlab/2020/02/12/deciding-on-projects/

Holding a Raspberry Pi

Rad Mad Lab in the Time of Covid.

What the Rad Mad Disability lab has done this semester can almost be split into what had was started and planned at the beginning of the semester and what the teams have been able to do to the limitations of the shutdown.. Read on.

http://disability.jp/madlab/2020/05/05/rad-mad-in-the-time-of-covid/

Light Sensitivity

Light Sensitivity is an another important, albeit less talked about accessibility issue. This is another project started by the Rad Mad Lab this semester. Read on..

http://disability.jp/madlab/2020/05/05/light/

Sense-Able Computing

Team Sense-Able Computing of the Rad Mad Lab continued the groundwork laid by Teams "Sense-Able Input P3" and "Sense-Able Output Apple Pi" from last semester.

They aim to build a coding environment that expands beyond the the monitor and keyboard. 

http://disability.jp/madlab/2020/05/05/senseable/

Radical Mapping

Team Radical Mapping of our lab is working towards an embodied navigation system on and off campus. They also just received funding from the campus administration to continue the project.

http://disability.jp/madlab/2020/05/05/rm/

We will be back in Fall.

Prof Karen Nakamura and all the students here at the RadMad Lab wish everyone a safe summer. Stay healthy everyone. We will be back in fall.

http://disability.jp/madlab/2020/05/05/fall/

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Semester 1 @ RadMad Lab

I started as a URAPer at the UC Berkeley Disability Lab, also known as the RadMad Lab

(URAP = Undergrad Research Apprentice Program) 

I think my role at the Lab this semester is best summed up by Prof Nakamura who heads the lab: 

"Hari is the newest student member of the lab. He’s a proud autistic activist and student leader on campus. While he comes out of a deep personal experience with autism, he isn’t familiar with other disability spaces — and as a current and future disability leader, he needs that experience. He’s heading up what we’re faking Team Propaganda - which is to help broaden the public reach of the lab, especially to crip communities." 

The Fall 2019 URAP Team

Personal Reflection: A nonspeaking autistic at the RadMad Disability Lab

http://disability.jp/madlab/2019/12/12/nonspeaking-autistic/ 

More posts on the Lab's work this semester by me

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The RadMad Disability Lab at UC Berkeley 

The Nakamura Disability Lab is one of UC Berkeley’s well-kept secrets tucked away inside one end of the Hearst Annex complex. With its mission of "Making Better Crips," the lab has been operational since 2018 and led by Karen Nakamura who is the Haas endowed chair for Disability Studies and Professor of Anthropology. (more...)

On Power wheelchairs by Corbett O'Toole

Power Wheelchairs are meant to be mobility devices, but counter-intuitively not manufactured for outdoor use.

Community Guest speaker and visitor to the Disability makerspace lab, Corbett OToole was interviewed on some of the challenges that wheelchair users have to contend with. (more...)

When Thumbless Meets Gaming

Most, if not all mainstream gaming controllers assume and require the use of opposable thumbs and a lot of manual dexterity. Commercial controllers are high cost. The goal for " Team Thumbless" at the RadMad Disability Lab at UC Berkeley was to make an accessible and affordable controller using Arduinos, open-source software and low-cost everyday supplies. (more..)

Gena: Models for Inclusive Special Ed

People who are blind or low vision are often excluded from sex education. If they are mainstreamed, health classes rarely have accessible models or diagrams. And even at schools for the blind, teachers don’t always have access to tactile models (which can be very expensive) and must jerry-rig something themselves. (more...)

Free Beeps Project

A wheelchair user often cannot see what is behind them – so they end up hitting walls, doors and sometimes even other people which can be very frustrating. The Free Beep is essentially a backup sensor for power chairs, scooters, etc.(more...)

A Pooch Ramp

Lab members set out to provide solutions to a disabled dog in the community. (more...)

Sense-Able Computing: A Overview

Traditional STEM and Design Tools are simply inaccessible as most assume or even require the ability to use the screen, keyboard and mouse. As a result, many people with disabilities are dissuaded from going into the STEM fields and potentially making valuable contributions. When such a huge field is cut off, disabled people are essentially disempowered from feeling that they too can change the world.

Thus, a major goal for the Lab has been what Prof Karan Nakamura has termed "Sense-Able Computing" or creating a multisensory, tactile, screenless, Turing-complete programming environment. The target audience would be learners who want to change the world but find keyboard/mouse/screen programming environments inaccessible.(more...)

Sense-Able Computing: Input Team

The input team of Sense-Able Computing focused on prototyping a tactile input coding language to help the user learn the basics of coding.(more...)

Sense-Able Computing: Output Team

Team Apple Pi (output arm of “Sense-able Computing”)is trying to make a programmable robot prototype a reality -which would not only move but also have a sensor that would work with the programming language of the input team.(more...)

A non-speaking Autistic at the Disability Lab: A Personal Reflection. (more...)