Confederation College, Cinema 5 team up to create adaptive skateboarding device

Confederation College and Cinema 5 Skatepark are teaming up to make skateboarding more accessible.

The project, which is a collaboration between the skatepark and the college's Aerospace Manufacturing Engineering Technology (AMET) and Developmental Services Worker (DSW) programs, is developing a bracket for skatebaords that allows the use of a cane or a crutch, giving those with mobility challenges the opportunity to participate.

"It was just an exciting opportunity to collaborate with the DSW program at the college and try to improve lives in the community," said AMET third-year student Kai Fucile Ladouceur. "So that was something we wanted to set out to do with this project."

The prototypes, which were created via 3D printing, were tested at Cinema 5 on Tuesday.

"We don't know how well these are gonna work because we've never done this before, or tested these kinds of materials before in this way," said Chris Von Bargen, a professor with the AMET program. "So some of them might fail spectacularly, some of them might prove to be really strong in preliminary testing. We actually broke a crutch before we broke the bracket. So there's promising results."

"The crutch slips into the bracket, the bracket gets bolted to the skateboard, and hopefully when somebody's holding on to the crutch, they don't break the bracket off of the skateboard," he said.

Some testing had taken place previously at the college (Tuesday's session was the first time the designs were tested at a skatepark). 

"A lot of the tests that I've done, they've unfortunately broken at the base," Fucile Ladouceur said. "It's managed to get, I would say, decently close."

"I think my colleagues have done a much better job with their designs," he said. "They've actually done such a good job that we've found that the weak point is not necessarily with their design, but with a cane itself."

"So we've been looking at ways of maybe trying to strengthen the cane or perhaps try to get a cane that is a bit stronger."

Amy Shepherd, a student with the DSW program and Cinema 5's accessibility coordinator, said the project is important as there isn't a lot of adaptive equipment available for skateboarding.

"We are looking to expand in different ways on how to include more people with mobility issues or intellectual difficulties to be able to expand our programs, but also allow them to have the opportunity to engage in skateboarding and have a recreation activity as well," she said.

And Shepherd was happy with what she saw on Tuesday.

"I'm finding it really cool to see the engineering in action," she said. "It's amazing how testing is important to ensure the safety of the individuals who will be using the equipment."

"Some of them are standing pretty strong and there's still more to go through," Shepherd said. "It seems to be working very well, and tricks are being landed."

"It's a lot of fun to see."

Fucile Ladouceur said the plan was to see which designs held up the best, and then try recreating them with more-advanced materials.

"It really feels good to have this type of impact," he said. "This is real-life application, it's not just in the class."

"It's something that we can produce, and make a positive impact and difference in the community," Fucile Ladouceur said. "It's been really cool trying to work with my colleagues as a team, sort of if I was working in the industry."