Meghan Boland, Speech Language Pathologist at Washington High School, had a need for an adaptive device for one of her students who lacks fine motor skills to be able to use a tablet effectively.
Boland uses a text to speech app that the School District of Washington purchased that students who have difficulty communicating can use to better communicate with their teachers and classmates.
One of her students had difficulty maneuvering the key board on an iPad, so a keyguard was needed.
A keyguard is a plastic or metal plate that sits above the keys on a standard keyboard. The keyguard matches the keyboard in the app used by the District. It creates clear boundaries on the keyboard, which improves accuracy and communication skills for students in need.
The problem is a keyguard is expensive.
“It’s inexpensive to download the app, but we needed to purchase a keyguard, which can be at least $70 apiece,” Boland said.
That’s where WHS senior Elijah Uffman and the Project Lead The Way Engineering program entered the picture.
Boland reached out to engineering instructor Philip King to see if there was a way his students could make a keyguard.
“I passed it on to Eli, who took the ball and ran with it,” King said.
Uffman already has completed two years of engineering courses at WHS and currently is King’s teaching aid.
“When I first talked to Eli about it, he really had no reservations,” Boland said. “He was definitely up for helping us.”
Using the CAD (Computer Aided Design) program, Uffman created two keyguards made of plastic that were printed on the school’s 3D printer.
“Coach King’s teaching really had a positive effect on me. I started taking engineering class my sophomore year and have grown to really enjoy it. He introduced me to the CAD program and I use it at home on a different license just as a hobby,” said Uffman. “I had never done anything like this before. Mrs. Boland gave me the rundown on everything. Before I got started, I did a lot of brainstorming on how to format the keyguard for the app.
“The most time consuming thing I needed to do was to measure all of the dimensions from the key board on the app, and then plug those measurements and dimensions into the program. It took me about an hour and a half to do it,” Uffman said.
Uffman then did the design work, which took a couple of class periods to complete. It was then time to print out the plastic device on the 3D printer.
All and all, the first prototype was completed in less than a week.
“There was nothing to fix from the first prototype,” Boland said. “We just had to tweak a couple of things. He did a great job.”
“For the second prototype, I just made some adjustments from the first one, so it was a lot less time consuming,” Uffman said.
“We’re in the beginning stages of using the keyguard and introducing it to one of our students, but they are adjusting to it well and are really happy about the boundaries it creates on the keyboard. I’m thrilled to be able to give it to one of our students who really needs it,” Boland said.
“Being able to help someone communicate, especially another student, is the biggest satisfaction for me,” Uffman said.
“Using students to help other students is something I wanted to do,” Boland said. “When you have the students and the resources to do a project like this, it’s really fantastic.”
Following graduation, Uffman plans to attend Washington University in St. Louis and major in technical art. For now, he plans to remain doing engineering projects as a hobby.
Washington High School student Elijah Uffman created a keyguard for fellow students who have difficulties communicating. He used the skills he learned in Philip King’s engineering class.
A keyguard is a plastic or metal plate that sits above the keys on a standard keyboard.
