People with Disabilities

People with disabilities often are in the role of the "co-designer" for the Challenge. That means that they provide the student team with the initial set of activities of daily living that they would like to be able to do better, and work with the team to down-select ideas and test prototypes.

If you are a person with a disability, or a caretaker, this page is for you.

I would like to be a co-designer but do not have a team. Can you match me with one?

At the CRE[AT]E Challenge, we have a general policy of not matching teams with co-designers for a few reasons:

• The vast majority of our participants are minors, and we are not comfortable matching minors with strangers

• Our participants are spread out across the US (and a few other places), and we require that teams be able to test with their co-designers, so we cannot easily match based on location

I would like to be a co-designer but do not have a team. Can I form a team?

Yes! Teams must be comprised of high school or college students (no mixed teams) and an adult coach (see Coaches FAQ). If you are an adult and are able to fulfill the responsibilities of coach, you may also serve as the coach. If you wish to form a team, it is likely best to do so with a school or community organization that you are already part of.

What should I expect as a co-designer?

We want to be clear that as a co-designer, you are first and foremost a volunteer in an educational activity, not a recipient of a service. While student teams do often make some product prototype that is useful to their co-designer, they are students in a course and you should not have the expectation that they will necessarily be successful.

To help your student team, it is also useful to keep these items in mind:

• Explain your challenges honestly and completely to the extent that you are able. Try not to oversell a challenge or pretend that an idea or prototype is more useful than it really is.

• Be open to ideas as you brainstorm with the team. You may have some ideas of what might be useful, which you should express, but other things might come up in the brainstorming process.

• If you are able to, showing the team the places where the relevant activities of daily living take place is often extremely valuable. That may mean showing the team your home, school, or workplace, depending on the challenges you want to focus on. Try to work with the team so that they are able to understand where your challenges are situated.

We are very thankful for the co-designers who participate in the CRE[AT]E Challenge - you are instrumental in helping develop our students' design and engineering skills, as well as their ability to understand and empathize with users!