In Kenya is very hard for physically disabled people to get a job. Because he uses a wheelchair, Fredrick was turned away from employment several times.

“There is a general notion that if you’re disabled you don’t need to work because your family look after you or you’re on government benefits. Not in their wildest dreams would an employer think you want to work and that you may be qualified”, he explained.

The young boy is dependent on his father to be ferried around. Because his father is not always available, sometimes Nikhil misses classes. With this in mind, Mayuri took action and created a solution.

“My brother is growing up, and it is not comfortable and convenient for my father to lift him and hold him on the scooter every time he goes to school. At times when my father is not around, he misses his classes. So I thought of this idea to take my brother to school with me and discussed it with my teachers and principal and everyone gladly supported me”, she explained.

“I broke my hip and I was unable to walk for three weeks, I had to use a wheelchair. I built a wheelchair with airbags and it worked very well”, Gilad recalled.

It works by allowing the hub of the wheels to float in mid-air, which leads to suspend the user and chair from the pavement. In order to activate the suspension mechanism, it requires a threshold of impacts. Once it’s activated, the hub of the wheel goes back to its original position in order to minimise the shock. What happens here is that the wheel takes off the shock and hits, instead of the user or vehicle.

The device, called Wheelchair Accessible Forklift, consists of a forklift with a flat platform that allows a person using a wheelchair to operate it and incorporates additional control mechanisms for disabled drivers.

Harlan met a disabled veteran who was a keynote speaker at a SkillsUSA event. His Humvee had hit an IED and blown his legs off. “You’re young, you’re the future, and we need you to think outside the box so that people like me can work side by side with you”, the vet said.

After his speech, the teacher was driven to develop a forklift that he could use.

Aryeh joined the Israel Defense Forces in 2002, as a paratrooper. He suffered a serious injury left him with complex regional pain syndrome, a chronic condition caused by nerve damage to a limb.

During the treatment and healing process, Miri Berger, Aryeh’s wife, wanted to find a way to help one of her professors.

Burak’s invention features a glove a mobile app and is able to help sight, hearing and speech-impaired individuals. The wearable was designed as part of a project called "Engelleri Aşalım" ("Let's Overcome Obstacles") which led the student to win an award.

The goal of this gadget is to help people with disabilities by communicating and even complete transactions at banks and state institutions.

Maya, born in 2010, and her father, live at a camp for displaced refugees, in Syria. They both suffer from a conditional called congenital amputation and the cause of this condition is unknown.

Because Mohammed couldn’t afford to get Maya traditional prosthetic, we made a pair using cans filled with cotton and pieces of cloth.

“I mounted some plastic on two tins of sardines with which she can go to school with. My heart suffers when I see her crawling in front of friends, while they play and run. It hard, but those are better than nothing”, the inventor explained.

Because of his condition, Cheung is only able to type on a computer keyboard with only one figure. This specific problem was what inspired the student to come up with CP2Joy, a software that relies mostly on voice commands to control the computer, with minimises the need for physical movements from the user.

CP2Joy only requires a joystick and the built-in microphone from the computers.

Stella can do a lot of things on her own, but it’s hard for her to go to the bathroom alone because it’s very hard for her to pull her pants up.

Jodi Carroll, the girl’s occupational therapist, tried to find a solution and even called some clothing companies but got no response. And that’s when she contacted students from the local high school. When they were presented with the challenge, they immediately took action.

The boy was driven to develop these inventions after he saw a video of a disabled person who modified a car for himself.

The devices Subh built include a detachable set of piston-cylindrical-spring-systems and a portable side stand, as people with physical disabilities and amputees have trouble balancing.

“I was inspired to work on this project when I saw a video where a physically-challenged person had modified a car for himself. He was driving using one leg,” the inventor explained.

Pham was born in Quang Tri, a province known for landmines, unexploded ordnance, accidents and birth defects.

After seeing a commercial on TV about an American robotic arm, the student thought he could create a better and more affordable device to help disabled people from his province perform their daily tasks.

It took the boy two years to come up with the required algorithms to implement this project. Eventually, he created a 3D printing gadget that uses the toes and feet movement to control fingers, hands and arms.

"I thought about people with mobility challenges who might not have arms or legs who might have limited ability to use their arms and legs," she said in an interview on Edmonton AM. They might be in a wheelchair, they may be blind, they may be using canes. I grew up knowing that disability was not about what people could not do, it was about what they could do. So, I'm really inspired to create design solutions that really work toward people's abilities, rather than disabling them further”, she explained.

Logan was in a coma for nearly 12 days when he was 13 years old, as a result of a rare allergic reaction he had to some contrast agents from a routine MRI. After waking up from the coma, he couldn’t walk, he had lost several motor skills, was speech impaired and almost completely blind. But is mind was fully working.

Kavita is not able to move out of her wheelchair due to her condition. Because she believes disabled people should be able to try to be more independent, she already came up with several assistive robotic devices that can help people with disabilities to have greater physical independence.

Nikhil was diagnosed with leukaemia when he was 17 years old. The young man had a wedge pillow placed at an angle under his back, which helped him sleep better. So Smart Inclining Bed was born.

Vishal Rao, born in India, in 1978, is an oncologist who developed a low-cost prosthetic voice box, called Aum Voice Prosthesis (AUM) after a voiceless patient asked him for a more affordable solution.

The device costs about a 1 USD to produce and it was built when a patient of Vishal’s asked his for a cheap solution, as he lost his voice after surgery.

With a degree in aerospace engineering, Ashwinraj was inspired to create this technology after the death of a colleague.

Amira’s invention integrates medical wearable technology with vibration therapy. This patent-pending technology is being used to create a line of therapeutic apparels that improve blood/fluid circulation and tissue activity in the body.

The inventor founded her own company, TheraV, in 2016, after launching a crowdfunding campaign and with two years of development and testing her product.

Karen had no background in science or medicine but she was already an entrepreneur before the created Lysogene, a company that uses the biotechnology field specializing in gene therapy to treat rare neurodegenerative diseases.

It all started when her daughter, who was born in 2005, was diagnosed with Sanfilippo Syndrome A, a rare disease. Ornella’s daughter paediatrician noticed the child had some particular features such as wide eyebrows and liver enlargement. After lots of tests, the baby was diagnosed with Sanfilippo Syndrome A.

The treatment revolves around precision medicine, treatment simulations and drug repurposing.

Matthew’s son, Bertrand, was born in 2007 and was the first person diagnosed with NGLY1 deficiency. This condition causes chronic seizures, liver problems, and developmental delays. Bertrand had inherited two mutations of the NGLY1 gene, which plays a key role in recycling cellular waste. That meant the child’s cells were choking on their own trash. In addition, when Bertrand cried, his eyes stayed dry. It took four years to get a diagnosis.