For most of us, putting on a sock, fastening a helmet or walking a dog is simply part of everyday life. For people living without an arm or a leg, these moments can require a different approach – opening the door to thoughtful, practical design.
From a toothbrush grip aid for people with limited hand strength and a foot-operated bike helmet buckle aid to a portable doorknob turner, a one-handed kitchen toolkit and a one-handed knitting tool, these inventions show how thoughtful design can make everyday activities more accessible. They are just a glimpse of what is possible when creativity meets real-world needs.
Bambu Lab, together with seven leading accessibility organizations that use 3D printing, have launched a global design challenge on MakerWorld, the world’s largest community of makers who design, share, download, and print 3D models.
From September to December 2026, seven partners will invite designers and 3D-printing users worldwide to create practical, usable solutions for 24 real-world needs.
- Ayúdame3D, headquartered in Spain, will promote the challenge in Spain and send winning devices to communities around the world including Africa. It has distributed more than 1000 free “trésdesis” arms in 70 countries since 2017.
- e-NABLE France will take the challenge to French-speaking makers. Its 450-plus volunteers have already fitted more than 200 3D-printed hands.
- PrintLab, based in the U.K., brings a human-centered design toolkit used in its assistive-technology challenge since 2020.
- Emerging Tech Lab at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center, based in the U.S., helps ensure designs reflect the lived experiences, interests, goals, and everyday environments of the people they are intended to support.
- MakeGood, based in the U.S., advises on briefs rooted in real user research. Since 2021 it has made free, custom assistive devices, including the Toddler Mobility Trainer, a fully 3D-printed wheelchair for children.
- Makers Making Change, a Neil Squire Society program based in Canada, will promote the contest in Canada. Winning designs will be considered for its open-source assistive technology library for their network of volunteer makers to build for people with disabilities. It has delivered more than 30,000 devices with help from about 40,000 volunteers.
- Rightfooted Foundation International, based in the U.S., is bringing briefs from the limb-difference community, including work done with Jessica Cox and will help get finished models to the people who need them.
Bambu Lab will host the challenge on MakerWorld, its vibrant community of makers and free library of 3D models. Hardware stopped being the main barrier years ago, after Bambu Lab lowered the barrier to 3D printing with its highly accessible printers. MakerWorld has become the largest community of 3D makers. This is the first time MakerWorld is mobilizing its community of designers to work with people with disabilities on specific, everyday needs.
The program is built around concrete, everyday needs. Jessica Cox, founder of Rightfooted Foundation International, was born without arms and uses her feet for daily life. She can pull on her first sock with a bare foot. The second sock is the problem: once one foot is covered, she loses the friction she needs to get fabric over her heel. She can scoop her service dog’s waste, then has no clean way to carry it without holding the bag under her chin. Fastening a bike helmet still means sitting on the floor and lining up two small buckle halves by feel, one foot planted for balance.
At the Emerging Tech Lab at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center, similar everyday challenges help drive the identification, development, and fabrication of customized solutions. Working directly with people with disabilities and rehabilitation professionals, the ETL uses 3D printing and digital fabrication methods to create practical tools that address individual needs. For example, picking up an item from the floor can be difficult when a conventional reacher requires squeezing a handle to operate it. People who use wheelchairs may also have difficulty storing, accessing, and retrieving everyday items such as phones, wallets, purses, and keys. These everyday situations can inspire makers to create simple solutions that make a meaningful difference.
Some examples:
Other briefs stay in the kitchen, the bathroom, and the things people do for pleasure. Ayúdame3D is requesting a toothbrush that does not have to be pinched, a tool for tying a ponytail with one hand. E-Nable France challenges makers to develop a one-hand kitchen toolkit. Neil Squire Society’s Makers Making Change is requesting a knitting-needle support for people who have had a stroke, a guitar pick that stays in place with limited grip, and a marker-cap aid a teacher can use alone. PrintLab is requesting a tabletop game that a child with cerebral palsy can play with friends, designed to look like a game rather than therapy equipment. MakeGood calls for a pickle-ball paddle holder for users with weakened hand-arm musculature who struggle to grip sports paddles and wish to play pickle-ball alongside friends.
Each of the seven partners contributed briefs based on work with real users.
“These are not hypothetical users,” said Qianye, Creator Operation at MakerWorld. “Jessica already walks her dog. Someone in a ward at Rancho already drops something and has to ask a stranger to pick it up. The question for makers is very small and very specific: can you print the missing piece so that person does not have to ask?”
Many of the co-initiating organizations have long built structured pathways connecting creators with people with disabilities. What MakerWorld delivers is creativity at scale: it unlocks richer creative ideas from more diverse backgrounds and draws more skilled creators into assistive design.
This makes more makers aware of how they can contribute toward good, deepens understanding of the barriers people with disabilities face, and fosters greater empathy across the community.
The MakerWorld community will have two months to submit. The accessibility organizations will then spend one month printing shortlisted models and testing them with the people named in the briefs. Some partners will deliver those prints to users. Feedback from that testing will inform the final results.
Winning files will be added to open libraries and distributed through volunteer networks that already deliver devices in more than 70 countries.
Each organization is responsible for a different part of the process.
🛠️ Need a little design inspiration?
PrintLab has provided a Challenge Toolkit to support you throughout your design journey.
The toolkit was originally developed to support students taking part in the Make:able Challenge
and provides a structured human-centred design process for developing assistive technology solutions in collaboration with a specific end user.
In particular, the Get Inspired section contains a large collection of real assistive technology projects.
Explore the Toolkit:
https://www.makeablechallenge.com/toolkit/
Access Code: MAKEABLE26
