#Veterans #QLPlus #AdaptiveDevices
Injured or disabled veterans have a friend in QL Plus, or more specifically, the engineering students and their mentors who create the QL Plus projects for veterans. The purpose of QL Plus is to create the gear and adaptive devices that will make injured veterans more independent and mobile, able to manage their daily lives or participate in sports and hobbies.
The students come from 25 colleges and engineering schools across the country, and they work with mentors and experts to create the personalized devices that injured veterans need. Some of the projects are ingenious – wheelchair tire cleaners for a veteran’s garage, kayak and bike lifts and hiking prosthetics are just a few of the devices created by the students.
Then there was the weightlifting hook so a veteran could complete his workout routine, and the one-handed bobsled for the U.S. Para Bobsled team. One veteran was able to play his guitar again after losing his arm when the QL Plus team created an adaptive guitar pick that attaches to his prosthetic arm.
To read about these and more, see the “View Featured Projects” link at the website www.qlplus.org. And check YouTube for some of the group’s previous projects (www.youtube.com/@qlplusprogram) as well as Instagram (www.instagram.com/ql.plus).
Veterans with a disability (not necessarily service-related) are encouraged to apply to have devices made for them at no cost whatsoever. Each project takes a full year, with design of the device done in the fall semester and the actual building of it in the spring, with completion in May.
If there is a device you need to make your life easier, QL Plus wants to hear from you (www.qlplus.org). Click on “Request A Project.” They’re now taking applications for the 2025-2026 academic year.
If you don’t need a device but you’d like to donate to QL Plus (it’s a nonprofit rated three stars by Charity Navigator), you can mail a check to 1544 Spring Hill Road #9927, McLean, VA 22102.
(c) 2025 King Features Synd., Inc.
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