Shaun Lyall’s job as a seating technician with the St Giles Mobility Clinic seating team requires flexibility and ingenuity.
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His skills were put to the test last week, when he headed to the Tikkun Olam Makers Makeathon at Swinburne University in Melbourne.
Alongside a team of engineers and university students, Mr Lyall created crutches which incorporated a seat for a 90 kilogram 20-year-old male with a range of physical disabilities. Solutions invented at the event are put on to an open-source data-base for anyone to access.
“He didn’t want a walking frame and he didn’t want a wheelchair,” Mr Lyall said.
Mr Lyall said the 72-hour ‘makeathon’ was a new, exciting and challenging experience.
“We designed and manufactured a prototype in three days,” he said.
“They’re normally long days, we went from probably 8am until about 9.30pm.”
St Giles chief executive Ian Wright said Mr Lyall “could not have participated without the philanthropic vision of the Commercial Travellers Association of Tasmania”.
