One can take things for granted, like playing with simple childhood toys. Some children with disabilities do not have the fine motor skills to manipulate toys with non trivial buttons. Toys like a light ball, or a stuffed animal with an internal sound module is not easy for all children.

I have a family member with a disability that prevents them from using electronic toys like this. Thier parents directed me to a charity Santa’s Little Hackers where they had received a toy modified with an external button that is easier to press for their child. This charity modifies and distributes “Switch Adapted Toys” to children with disabilities.

Switch Adapted Toys is its own 503(c)(3) non-profit organization that provides toys, and guides on how to modify toys with external buttons. They organize volunteer days where people can come and help modify toys for donation.

There are two parts to their design. The first is they solder a mono audio socket to the circuit board of the toy. They find the part of the circuit that triggers the toy to make sound or light up, and connect the audio socket to those points.

The second piece is the external button connected to a mono audio jack. This way the buttons can be connected to diffferent toys, reducing the cost of making a button for every toy. And removing a heavy button from the toy when not in use.

My Design⌗

I decided to pickup a Bluey toy that plays sounds if you squeeze this internal button on the toy. I opened the velcro compartemnt, and pulled out the plasic case for the electronics. I unscrewed the back and found the PCB. With some probing with a wire, I was able to find two points that trigger the voice module when bridged. I soldered the mono audio socket to those two points. I didnt have to drill into the case to get the wire through because it already has a gap big enough for the wire.

NOTE: You may need to thread your audio cable through a hole in the case BEFORE soldering

Next I needed a button. The Switch Adapted Toys website has a 3D printable button, but it required a switch that I could not source before Christmas. So I improvised an puchased Sanwa compatible arcade buttons, and designed my own 3D printable enclosure for it.

The 3D printable design can be found here

First I thread the audio jack through the hole in the button enclosure, and solder it to the arcade button. Then I tested that the button worked by plugging it into the toy. Then I push the button until it snaps into place. Note this is likely an one way operation. I did not make a way to disasable this button, so once snapped in, it is permanent. At first this felt like bad design, but I am giving this toy to a child with disabilites, so I didn’t really want them to be able to disasemble it or break it. This is one solid piece of plastic with no removable parts. Seems safer this way.

Donation Links⌗

If you would like to support the groups that design, assemble, and distribute toys to kids with disabilities checkout these donation links:

Santa’s Little Hackers

Switched Adapted Toys

-E