Artists With Developmental Disabilities Can Sell Their Art At Stay Smiling

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This post was written by David Drake, founder of Stay Smiling.

During my undergrad, I stumbled across a store that was run by individuals with developmental disabilities.  I loved the concept as a way to teach life-skills to those with challenges. The participants were involved in a number of tasks from cleaning, to preparing products to social interaction. What made this program unique was its potential to generate income. Since my brother Chris has Down Syndrome, I was well aware of how expensive conventional methods of teaching these skills could be. I helped setup a similar storefront in my home-town where Chris now serves ice-cream and sells art.

 Many of you probably don’t live near my brother. You can’t buy ice cream from him or buy his artwork. Fundamentally, a store has to be supported by the local community. An online platform has no limit on its reach. As I worked on this concept I realized the challenges faced by my brother and their support groups include: difficulties learning technology, managing social media, making products and shipping them. With my tech background I was able to quickly put together a platform that manages these needs so that his work can be translated into a number of products from prints to baby burp clothes and everything in between! (link to http://ift.tt/2rqAcQA).

 The current platform was launched in April and can be accessed here (link to http://ift.tt/2qQMSmW). It tells the story of our organization, provides a hub for information, promotes some sample works and allows you to purchase products that use our artists work. A key point to note is that our goal is to help our artists earn a living. This is why we offer an 80% guarantee. This is our promise that 80% of the profits from sales through the platform return to the artist who made the work.

 We are actively looking to scale. If you are an organization that works with individuals with developmental disabilities or if you know an artist who could benefit from our work feel free to send us an email at info@staysmilingpartners.com.

Check out some of the work by three artists from Stay Smiling.

 

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Adaptoys Are Toys For People With Paralysis

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For many people living with paralysis, spinal cord injuries or other disabilities that don’t allow a lot of body movement, a big frustration for them is that they are not able to physically participate with their able bodied family members. Imagine someone who is paralyzed from their neck down, wanting to play with their young nephews or nieces. Similarly, think of a grandmother, who is in a wheelchair, wanting to pitch ball to her granddaughter who likes to play baseball. In almost all cases, they are just spectators – they don’t get to play with their family members. Instead, they only get to watch them play with others.

Christopher & Dana Reeve foundation is wanting to change that for people with disabilities. The foundation, in collaboration with 360i and Axios, has developed a new line of toys called Adaptoys which are meant for people living with paralysis. These toys have assistive technology built into them that use voice activation, head tilts, and sip & puff technology that allow people  to control them. For example, the r/c car they have developed can be powered by wearing a headset that has a pipe attached to it. Sipping and puffing into the pipe makes the car move forward, and tilting the head to the sides makes it change directions, Similarly, another toy, that can pitch balls, can be activated by the person saying “pitch” or “pop up”. The toy will then throw the ball out to the able bodied player.

The foundation is raising money to produce 100 accessible toys for those many individuals. Donations are currently being accepted at their website adaptoys.org. Once their goal is reached and the toys are produced, they would be given to select individuals through a lottery system. If the foundation is not able to reach its goal, the money collected from donations will still be used for improving the quality of lives of people with paralysis.

Watch the video below to learn more about Adaptoys and who they are for.

Source: Fox News Health

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