Disability groups have welcomed collaboration between Australian National University students and an assistive technology engineering firm to create low-cost technology.
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A learning program launched on Tuesday for students from ANU, the University of Canberra and Canberra Institute of Technology will allow students to help design accessible technology.
Karen Pennell, the senior manager at Advance Personnel, an organisation funded by the Department of Family and Community Services and a program partner, said low-cost technology was "hugely" important for getting people with disabilities into the workplace.
Ms Pennell said it "was great students have people with a disability as part of their thinking" and that the program built awareness of the challenges people with a disability face in the workplace.
The executive director of Technical Aid for the Disabled ACT, Graham Waite, said his organisation had been working on technology for the disabled for 35 years but the program to include the design of new aids in the university curriculum was a step forward.
"It's a great idea,'' Mr Waite said. ''It's quite concerning when you hear about the cost of items needed by people with a disability.
"The worst I've heard was an occupational therapist in Canberra said to me, ''Look, I've just had to script a new wheelchair for someone and it's going to be $36,000,' " Mr Waite said.
The institutions will work with Enable Development, a social enterprise aimed at building low-cost technology for the disabled founded by Huy Nguyen.
Mr Nguyen, who tried software engineering and visual arts before ending up an engineer, said the high cost of assistive technology was one of the main barriers to people with disabilities being included in society.
"We want to build a culture where assisted technology was more accessible and more affordable," he said.
Mr Nguyen said he was lucky to be "exeptionally well supported" when attending school in the ACT, but still assistive technology had been a "massive financial burden" on his family.
Creative solutions required many brains. "The event that had the biggest impact on my personal development was the ability to collaborate with other students, and cross institutions, not just ANU," Mr Nguyen said.
Tim Fraser, a 23-year-old RMIT engineering student who wasinvolved in the Enable Technology learning program, has helped design a cheaper accessible bike.
Mr Fraser said the bikes usually cost between $3000 and $10,000, which he said was "weird because all they are is a rearrangement of a normal bike. So there is no reason why they would cost that much."
Mr Nguyen said the biggest problem was not disability, "just bad technology".