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Adapting Cars for Children with Disabilities: The GoBabyGo IL Core Build Kit

Simple, Accessible Solutions for Customizing Cars for Children with Disabilities

By Mikey Strauss ·4 min read

At GoBabyGo, we believe that mobility is a right, not a luxury. Over the past decade, our 100% volunteer-driven Israeli chapter has worked to bring freedom, joy, and independence to children with disabilities. Through creativity, thoughtful design, and hands-on dedication, we’ve customized over 800 electric ride-on cars, transforming them into adaptive mobility tools for families across Israel.

We’ve learned a lot along the way. Each build taught us something new about accessibility, usability, and the importance of keeping designs simple, reliable, and adaptable. Now, we’re excited to introduce the GoBabyGo IL Core Build Kit: a streamlined toolkit designed to make car adaptations easier, safer, and more versatile than ever before.

What Is the GoBabyGo Core Build Kit?

The Core Build Kit is the foundation of our car customizations. It addresses three primary challenges in adapting electric cars for children with disabilities:

  1. Push Button Adaptation: Replacing foot pedals with hand- or head-controlled mechanisms for accessible operation.
  2. Seating Customization: Adding wide, adjustable belts and external support for enhanced safety and comfort.
  3. Flexible Mounts: Creating modular supports for accessories like headrests, lap boards, and adaptive bike chairs.

This kit tries to strike the balance between consistency and flexibility. It simplifies the build process for volunteers, caregivers, and families while allowing for easy adaptations to meet each child’s unique needs.

Where Can I Find the Kit?

The Core Build Kit is still a work in progress, and we’re sharing it to encourage collaboration. Our goal is to engage with other GoBabyGo chapters, makers, and families worldwide. We welcome your feedback, ideas, and insights to refine and expand the kit for broader use cases.

As with all our work, the Core Build Kit will be open source: free and accessible to anyone who wants to use or build upon it.

🔗 Adaptive Electric Car, GoBabyGo Israel (Core Build Kit)
🔗 Custom Stabilized Push Button

Seating Customization

Standard car seat belts often fall short in terms of safety and fit. Our solution includes wide belts as well as printed mounts and tri-glides.

  • Pair of Wide Seat Belts: Made from faux leather with adaptable Velcro connections for a secure, adjustable fit.
  • Tri-Glide Belt Adjusters: Screw-mounted connectors and low-profile snap-in connectors for enhanced adaptability.
  • Child Bike Seat (Large/Small): Designed for additional stability and comfort.

Assembly Instructions

  1. Position the waist belts at a 45-degree angle for maximum support.
  2. Use low-profile snap-in mounts where space is limited (a standard 8mm drill bit works well for installation).
  3. Adjust the belt length using the included tri-glide adjusters.

Push Button Adaptation

The Push Button Adaptation replaces the car’s foot pedal with an easy-to-use push button, enabling children to operate the car using their hands or heads. The kit includes the following components:

  • Pedal-to-Jack Adapter: Converts the existing pedal microswitch into a 3.5mm jack input, making it compatible with adaptive push buttons. The goal is to create a breakout board that integrates various car connectors into a single, simple solution.
  • No-Solder 3.5mm Jack Setup: A quick and easy wiring system that requires no soldering.
  • Push Button Mounts: Designed for secure, stable mounting of both the Logitech Adaptive kit and the GoBabyGo custom push button. The flexible mounts allow push buttons to pop in and out easily as well as attach to PVC mounting connectors for custom builds.

Assembly Instructions

  1. Locate and disconnect the two wires attached to the car’s pedal microswitch (usually accessible underneath the car).
  2. Install the Pedal-to-Jack Adapter using the provided 3D-printed mount.
  3. Connect the two pedal wires to the Pedal-to-Jack Adapter to enable push button operation.
  4. Plug the push button’s 3.5mm male jack into the Pedal-to-Jack Adapter.

Custom Stabilized Push Button

While off-the-shelf push buttons are widely available, we’ve encountered two major challenges:

  1. Cost: High-quality adaptive push buttons can become prohibitively expensive, sometimes costing tens of dollars for a single unit.
  2. Supply: Sourcing large quantities of these buttons consistently can be difficult, especially when scaling up builds.

To address these issues and unlock new possibilities for customization, we decided to create our own design. Our custom stabilized push button is built around a 65mm form factor, which is one of the most common and reliable choices for our adaptive builds.

🔗 Check it out here: GoBabyGo Stabilized Push Button

Internal design: low-profile switch, 2 stabilizers and 2 springs.

Looking Ahead: Collaboration and Improvement

The Core Build Kit isn’t just a toolkit: it’s a starting point. By sharing it, we hope to:

  • Spark conversations with other GoBabyGo chapters and volunteers.
  • Gather feedback to refine and improve the kit for even more use cases.
  • Empower more families to customize electric cars that meet their child’s needs.

Our long-term vision is a kit that’s so versatile, reliable, and user-friendly that it can be assembled for any child, no matter their abilities or requirements.

Let’s Work Together!

We believe collaboration drives innovation. Whether you’re a maker, caregiver, volunteer, or someone passionate about adaptive solutions, we’d love to hear from you!

If you’d like to discuss the Core Build Kit in detail, feel free to reach out.

🔗 Connect with GoBabyGo IL:

🔗 Connect with Me: LinkedIn

Together, let’s build solutions that empower children to move freely, explore confidently, and experience the joy of independence.

🚗✨