Case Study
Background
In 2023, tech entrepreneur Saad Chinoy and two colleagues from Engineering Good identified a critical gap in Singapore’s assistive technology landscape. While hospitals provided basic rehabilitation services, patients were often discharged once they achieved minimal functional independence—able to eat with a fork, for instance—without support for achieving meaningful quality of life outcomes. Traditional prosthetics and assistive devices remained prohibitively expensive, and the one-size-fits-all approach failed to address individual needs.
The Problem
Financial Barriers: Commercial assistive devices carry steep price tags. Prosthetic arms can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, one-handed nail clippers retail for over $50, and specialized tools often exceed what individuals with disabilities can afford, especially after exhausting savings on medical treatment.
Design Disconnect: Conventional social services treated beneficiaries as passive recipients rather than active participants in solution design. This approach resulted in assistive devices that didn’t precisely meet users’ practical needs or preferences.
Healthcare Gap: As Dr. Yeh I-ling, occupational therapy professor at Singapore Institute of Technology, notes: “There is a gap to close between being functionally fine from an administrative point of view, and reaching meaningful outcomes for people. That gap is one that the Government doesn’t pay for.”
The Solution
Salvage Garden pioneered a co-creation model that places users at the center of the design process. The organization operates through:
Weekly Workshops: Every Sunday at MakeIT spaces in four public libraries (Punggol, Tampines, Woodlands, and Jurong), participants work alongside 40 volunteers from tech, design, and engineering sectors.
Free Access to Technology: 3D printers, printing filament, and digital cutters are provided at no cost. More complex designs involving materials like metal rods or screws come at minimal prices.
Open-Source Innovation: Designs are sourced from platforms like Thingiverse or created originally, ensuring continuous innovation and knowledge sharing.
Iterative Development: Users provide real-time feedback on comfort and practicality, allowing rapid prototyping and refinement.
Real-World Impact: Irene Lim’s Story
Irene Lim, 38, exemplifies the transformative potential of this approach. After losing her forearms and legs to sepsis in 2023, she spent her entire life savings of $300,000 on treatment, leaving her unable to afford prosthetic arms. Through Salvage Garden, she received custom 3D-printed tools that attach utensils, back scratchers, and makeup brushes to her limbs—restoring her independence in daily activities.
Even after receiving a sponsored robotic prosthetic arm in August 2025, Lim continues using the 3D-printed tools at home. The prosthetic, while functional, causes arm fatigue similar to lifting dumbbells. For simple tasks like eating, the lightweight 3D-printed alternatives prove more practical and comfortable.
Additional Success Stories
Chopstick Assistance: A patient with partial paralysis regained the ability to eat noodles with chopsticks through a custom assistive tool—a seemingly small improvement that significantly enhanced her quality of life and cultural connection to food.
Assistive Chopping Boards: Thirty sets were created for adults with intellectual disabilities through partnership with social service agency Minds. The tools enable users to cut food into consistent sizes safely, promoting independence in meal preparation.
Coin Organization: A custom holder helped someone who had avoided using coins for years due to anxiety about confusing 20-cent and 50-cent pieces in public queues.
Outlook
Expansion Opportunities
Formalization of Services: Dr. Yeh advocates for integrating co-creation assistive technology services into Singapore’s formal healthcare system. Currently, no clear referral pathway exists for patients to access these collaborative design services. Establishing official channels could:
- Create standardized referral processes from hospitals to assistive tech co-creation centers
- Integrate 3D printing capabilities into occupational therapy departments
- Train healthcare professionals in additive manufacturing techniques
- Develop protocols for documenting and sharing successful designs
Scaling the Model: With thousands of participants already engaged since 2023, Salvage Garden demonstrates proof of concept. Potential growth areas include:
- Expanding to more library locations across Singapore
- Establishing satellite workshops in community centers and rehabilitation facilities
- Creating mobile units to reach homebound individuals
- Developing online platforms for remote consultations and design collaboration
Technology Integration: Emerging technologies could enhance the co-creation process:
- AI-assisted design tools that suggest modifications based on user feedback
- Advanced scanning technology for perfect custom fits
- Integration of smart materials and electronics into assistive devices
- Virtual reality prototyping to test designs before printing
Policy Considerations
Funding Models: While Salvage Garden operates on volunteer effort and minimal costs, sustainable scaling requires:
- Government grants for materials and equipment
- Public-private partnerships with medical device companies
- Insurance coverage for custom assistive devices
- Social enterprise models that balance affordability with sustainability
Quality Standards: As the field grows, establishing safety and efficacy standards becomes crucial without stifling innovation. Frameworks could include:
- Design review processes involving healthcare professionals
- Material safety certifications for body-contact devices
- User testing protocols and feedback documentation
- Intellectual property considerations for open-source designs
Education and Training: Building capacity requires:
- Curriculum development for healthcare professionals in assistive tech design
- Volunteer training programs in disability-aware design
- Public awareness campaigns about available resources
- Peer mentorship programs connecting experienced and new volunteers
Impact
Quantitative Outcomes
Accessibility: Since 2023, thousands of participants have attended co-creation sessions, gaining access to customized assistive technology at minimal or no cost—a stark contrast to commercial alternatives costing hundreds or thousands of dollars.
Cost Efficiency: A one-handed nail clipper created with 3D-printed filament, cable ties, and a regular clipper costs just a few dollars in materials versus $50+ for commercial versions—representing over 90% cost savings.
Reach: Operating across four library locations every Sunday creates 16 monthly touchpoints for community engagement, making assistive technology accessible across different Singapore neighborhoods.
Qualitative Transformations
Restored Independence: Users regain autonomy in daily activities—eating, grooming, cooking—that directly impact dignity and self-sufficiency. For Irene Lim, this meant not just functional ability but the restoration of her identity as someone who could care for herself and pursue employment.
Psychological Empowerment: The co-creation process shifts users from passive recipients to active designers of their solutions. This participatory approach builds confidence, problem-solving skills, and a sense of agency over one’s circumstances.
Social Inclusion: Custom tools enable participation in activities that connect people to culture and community. The chopstick assistance tool, for example, allows someone to share meals in culturally meaningful ways rather than being limited to Western utensils.
Quality of Life Enhancement: Hospitals focus on basic function, but Salvage Garden addresses the gap between “administratively fine” and “meaningfully thriving.” Small improvements—like being able to use coins without anxiety—accumulate into substantial life quality gains.
Systemic Contributions
Innovation in Social Services: Salvage Garden challenges the traditional beneficiary-recipient model, demonstrating that co-creation yields more effective, personalized solutions. This approach has implications beyond assistive technology for how social services engage with communities.
Knowledge Democratization: By using open-source designs and operating in public libraries, the initiative democratizes access to both the tools themselves and the knowledge of how to create them. Users can potentially become creators for others.
Cross-Sector Collaboration: The organization bridges healthcare, technology, design, and social services—demonstrating the power of interdisciplinary approaches to complex challenges. Volunteers bring professional expertise from diverse fields to address problems that single-sector solutions miss.
Proof of Concept for Policy: Salvage Garden provides evidence that low-cost, community-based assistive technology services can effectively fill gaps in the healthcare system. This real-world validation strengthens the case for policy changes and formal integration.
Long-Term Potential
Cultural Shift: By making assistive technology creation accessible and collaborative, Salvage Garden normalizes disability accommodation and builds a culture of inclusive design. Volunteers gain firsthand understanding of disability challenges, potentially carrying this awareness into their professional work.
Global Replicability: The model—combining public library infrastructure, volunteer expertise, open-source designs, and co-creation methodology—can be adapted to other contexts and countries facing similar gaps in assistive technology access.
Pipeline Development: As the initiative grows, it creates pathways for people with disabilities to become designers and advocates themselves, building community capacity and leadership.
Conclusion
Salvage Garden represents a paradigm shift in how society addresses assistive technology needs. By combining accessible 3D printing technology with a user-centered co-creation approach, it delivers practical solutions that commercial markets and traditional healthcare systems overlook. The organization’s success demonstrates that meaningful innovation often emerges not from top-down solutions, but from collaborative processes that respect users’ expertise about their own needs.
As Singapore considers formalizing these services, Salvage Garden offers a proven model: one that is cost-effective, dignified, innovative, and deeply responsive to the lived experiences of people with disabilities. The challenge ahead lies in scaling this grassroots success while preserving the collaborative spirit and user empowerment that make it effective.
The ultimate measure of impact extends beyond the tools themselves. It’s found in Irene Lim being able to apply her own makeup, in someone confidently using coins at a cashier, in a stroke survivor enjoying noodles with chopsticks. These moments of restored autonomy and dignity represent the true return on investment—one that no commercial prosthetic catalog or hospital discharge protocol can fully capture.