Rochester’s Al Sigl unveils new LiveABILITY Lab, highlighting its many community projects

For more than a decade, Al Sigl Community of Agencies has partnered with community members and organizations, along with Rochester Insitute of Technology students, to develop solutions that remove barriers to inclusion.

This week, the organization will unveil a new public space where community members can see the work in progress to accomplish that goal, and even lend their expertise and assistance.

Al Sigl welcomes guests on Aug. 14 to view its new LiveABILITY Lab project exhibition space, which is located at its Golisano Campus at 1000 Elwood Avenue in Rochester.

Tom O’Connor, Al Sigl’s president, said that the lab was created to spotlight the variety of projects in progress and to raise awareness to the fact that community members are welcome to suggest new projects.

“We are looking to take these ideas and turn them into solutions that end up in the hands of end users,” he said, adding the collaborative effort was designed to develop and test the effectiveness of assistive technology inspired by the community in the community.

Al Sigl Community of Agencies is a collaborative community network of organizations that serve children and adults with special needs.

The organization has helped connect interdisciplinary teams from area colleges and community volunteers with people of all ages and abilities taking part in Al Sigl Member Agency programs.

They have worked collectively to help develop solutions to real-world access technology challenges, he noted.

Oftentimes, individuals from the community suggest projects, mostly related to barriers to inclusion that they have faced in their daily lives. Agency staff then offer ideas for new items or digital tools for use on campus or by an individual or family they serve. College students from RIT also take part in co-op experiences observe program activities across Al Sigl’s six campuses and suggest ideas.

Once a project idea is identified, there are several opportunities throughout the year for further development.

While projects are in this stage, individuals receiving services at Al Sigl Member Agencies, as well as providers and community volunteers, play a key role in testing prototypes and providing feedback.

O’Connor said Al Sigl seeks to help people in the community by continuing to identify solutions that are aff­ordable and able to be implemented in real life.

Past projects focused on areas such as healthcare, personal care and mobility and include sensory therapy devices, adjustable lavatory care facilities and a cutting device for individuals with fine motor limitations.

One collaboration even helped launch a business in Rochester called ThermApparel.

The founders of ThermApparel cooling vests were industrial design graduate students from RIT. Through the collaboration with Al Sigl, they visited different Al Sigl Member Agency programs and events, including a peer-support group hosted by the National MS Society meeting on a sweltering summer evening.

Light attendance was linked to how many people living with MS leave the house less often in the summer due to heat sensitivity. At that meeting, the students learned that the existing products on the market did not meet the top criteria of people with heat sensitivity caused by health conditions — concealable, lightweight and comfortable.

Over the next few years, the students conducted more than 200 customer discovery interviews and created more than 50 prototypes. ThermApparel’s UnderCool products are now sold across the United States and internationally.

O’Connor wants to see more successes like ThermApparel and is hoping to expand the program to more college students and the community-at-large. It could also be an area of interest for fabricators, local engineers or entrepreneurs who focus on start-up ventures, he noted.

“We’ve had some commercial successes, and we still have a lot of ideas,” O’Connor said. “There may be a great project under the radar.”

[email protected] / (585) 653-4021