Michael Green says he's got "a weird mind".
A mechanical engineer, Michael has loved tinkering since he was a boy.
The 58-year-old from Adelaide create things in his spare time to help people with limited movement.
He volunteers through non-profit organisation Technology for Ageing and Disability SA — or TADSA — which hears from people who need technological solutions to everyday problems.
That could be something as simple as steps, or it could be something like the 'bindozer'.
Michael came up with the bindozer for a client who wanted something to help him take the bins out.
"The neighbours would do it but he wanted that independence and so I said 'yeah okay, we can make a device,'" Michael says.
It works by rolling the chair up to the bin and using a winch with a fork piece attached to lift the bin off the ground.
The wheels on the front help manoeuvre the bin, which can be lowered by cranking the winch.
"He [the client] loved it because not only did it do what he wanted to do, but it gave him that feeling of independence," Michael says.
"There were possibilities we could put a hitch on the back of the wheelchair and tow it like a trailer, but then he's got to reach around to get it.
"And so we're always just trying to make something that just works, you know?"
Michael makes everything in his backyard shed that's decked out as a workshop, filled with benches, tools, measuring devices and machinery.
Improved walkers, smoking aids and a better mouth stick
Included among the devices Michael has made over the years are light-weight mouth sticks for people with quadriplegia; walker brakes for someone with only one strong hand; and a smoking aid.
Michael says there have been people in care homes who are smokers that struggle to hold a cigarette.
"The request was, 'can we make something so they can smoke without being able to get to the cigarette?'" he says.
"So that's what that is, it's a little holder for a cigarette with a cage on top that can be strapped to the edge of a wheelchair or a table or something [with a ] long tube so they can smoke.
"There's a little object mechanism on there for the nurse or whoever to get the cigarette out at the end of it."
Michael says his contraption means the person can still have their nicotine fix without risk of burning themselves or "setting the place on fire".
"It's one of those things you think, 'I really shouldn't be doing that, it's bad for their health', and then you think that they've got all sorts of other health issues that's the least of their problems."
Michael taught himself the carpentry and metalworking skills he uses in his volunteer work.
"I get a lot of pleasure out of the actual making, but I like coming up with new ways of doing things."
His first project with TADSA was for a man with quadriplegia who used a mouth stick to communicate with computers and phones.
"If you can imagine having something that's 600 – 700 millimetres hanging out of your mouth, you want that as light as possible," Michael says.
So Michael tested out a version that used the lightweight arrows used in archery.
The arrow shafts were about half the weight of what was commonly used at the time, and was such a good idea other volunteers began to adopt the same strategy.
"When I do things like that, where it's picked up by others because that's a good idea, I find that really, really satisfying," Michael says.
"But as a first project you think, is this going to work? Is it not? Am I going to make a fool of myself?
"And to find out that someone really appreciated what I did … was great."
'Being independent is a big deal with disability'
Jacy Arthur has cerebral palsy and has been one of TADSA's clients since the early 1990s. For her first project, a volunteer made her a bike helmet without clips.
The 50-year-old, who works in web design and transport roles, emails TADSA when she has an idea about something that would help make her daily tasks easier.
The most useful inventions volunteers have made for Jacy include chopping boards with edges to hold the toast while buttering, as well as one-handed scissors.
"Being independent is a big deal with disability, the more things we can do for ourselves the better we feel," Jacy says.
TAD first started in Canberra in 1979 as an informal group of men who wanted to address people's complicated needs by creating support equipment and devices that were not available off the shelf.
The group formally incorporated in 1978 as an association and the charity now has small offices in six of Australia's capital cities.
Tracey Watters, 63, joined as general manager of TADSA in 2019 after 27 years working in palliative care.
When COVID thwarted her retirement plans to caravan around Australia, she joined TADSA as a way to do something that aligned with her values to be of help and a "good citizen".
"Assistive technology is in all our futures," she says.
People who receive NDIS funding can pay a small sum to TADSA for the work of its volunteers. The organisation also gets by on fundraising appeals and sausage sizzles.
As a small not-for-profit, it relies on word of mouth and volunteers, many of whom operate out of their own kitchen tables.
But it could always do with more volunteers, especially women.
"It is growing but not growing fast enough," Tracey says.
"All of these technical volunteers have got wives and partners and they are absolutely involved and invested in everything they do.
"They come as a bit of a package really, we celebrate Christmases most years, there's a real family feel about it."
Michael also encourages others to give it a go.
"There's a lot of people out there who think they are not clever enough to do that, not smart enough, and it's really a matter of breaking it down to the small bits and working out how to fix this and that, and link them all together," he says.
"There are techniques you can use to help things along and brainstorm … but it's not hard.
"Give it a go see what happens!"
Do you have an invention you'd like to share?
*Don't worry, we'll be in touch for permission before we share your invention.
