What IF injury or disability prevents you from fully interacting with the world?
What IF commercially available products didn’t work for you?
What IF someone had a solution?
For most of his life, Bryce has been unable to run around with his friends, ride a bike, or play basketball. Commercially available prosthetics were unable to account for a birth defect that caused one of his knees to be several inches higher than the other, resulting in balance problems. Bryce was the first recipient of a custom prosthetic designed and built at Purdue University. Within minutes of putting on the prosthetic, Bryce was playing basketball and was able to pedal a bike for the first time.
Assistive devices, like the prosthetic designed for Bryce, enable individuals with injuries or disabilities to interact more fully with the world around them. Unfortunately, commercially available devices do not work for all individuals. Therefore, a number of custom assistive devices are produced at Purdue University and delivered to individuals in the community. Based on the benefits provided by these devices, and the potential they have to be of aid to a larger number of individuals, Theresa Gordon and Eric Nauman created the IFoundation.
The mission of the IFoundation is to manufacture and distribute assistive devices customized to fit the individual needs and provide Increased Functionality in the areas of access, mobility, speech, and therapy. This will be accomplished by tapping into the potential of the assistive devices created at universities and by individuals. The IFoundation will work with Purdue’s Engineering Projects In Community Service (EPICS) program and individuals at Easter Seals Crossroads and The Timmy Foundation to develop products. Devices will be distributed directly to individuals or caregivers through outreach programs and rehabilitation centers. Several devices have already been produced for St. Vincent’s Pediatric Rehabilitation Center.
There are many individuals like Bryce forced to do without an assistive device because commercially available devices do not meet their needs. The IFoundation will provide affordable assistive device solutions for individuals so they no longer have to ask… “What IF?”