

Are coder/IT volunteers needed in places coder/IT “types” don't know about? - CookieMon

I and many other IT people seem to be heavily drawn to similar interests and pastimes, giving an impression that programmers are a dime a dozen and there&#x27;s always someone willing to work in their spare time on projects needed for a given topic.<p>I imagine that might not be the wider reality, and perhaps someone here knows if coders&#x2F;IT are useful somewhere but lacking?
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MaDeuce
No idea about your background/skillset, buy you might want to consider
volunteering with an organization that pairs technical folks with disabled
people to build custom solutions to help with their disability. This is
particularly true if you are interested in more than just programming (e.g.,
mechanics, electronics, fabrication). Here are two that I am aware of:

Tetra Society ([http://www.tetrasociety.org/](http://www.tetrasociety.org/))
Tetra recruits volunteers to design and fabricate items that overcome barriers
faced by people with disabilities, of all ages and across North America. Their
main page currently features a project that allowed a 19 year-old guitarist
with muscular dystrophy play the guitar again. Anyone that's a "maker" type
should visit the Tetra site and look at their complete project database --
some are quite impressive.

SpeakYourMind Foundation
([http://speakyourmindfoundation.org](http://speakyourmindfoundation.org)) The
SpeakYourMind Foundation is a growing team of engineers, clinicians,
designers, hackers, and social entrepreneurs dedicated to empowering these
individuals to re-connect with the world. Our goal is to turn our prototype
technologies into viable, affordable and life-changing solutions for the many
people with neurological injury and disease who struggle to communicate.

For some inspiration, check out this blog:
[http://www.hackingsma.com/](http://www.hackingsma.com/) It's by the father of
a young boy (~2yo?) that can only move two fingers and his toes. It details
how he successfully designed a built a wheelchair his son could use to explore
his surroundings. When you stop to think that only a tiny fraction of the kids
with needs like this have parents capable of providing this sort of help, the
need for volunteers becomes clear very quickly.

Quite different than working on the current hotness in FOSS, but perhaps more
rewarding in the long run. Just a thought.

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joelhumphrey
The realm of fixing broken websites and unfinished web apps is wide open.
Often, nonprofits with such projects have had a discouraging experience with
web development in the past. Even though they need their project
fixed/finished, they don't talk about it unless prompted.

~~~
bbcbasic
I helped fix a few problems on a charity site and forum a few years ago.

It was a serious WTF of hacked together PHP, gazillions of files with hundreds
of lines of similar code and it was hard to figure out what was getting
executed and what wasn't.

Needed a serious makeover but that would require a lot of dedication.

I can imagine there are a tonne of such sites out there waiting for a
professional to fix. I don't just mean coding but the whole thing - consult,
design, coding, change management, SEO, etc.

