Open Source Assistive Devices and Possibly Inspirational Stories.
About T-Rex & R.O.A.R.
Welcome to my passion project R.O.A.R. — Rex’s Open Assistive Resources.
My middle name is Tyrannosaurus and I am a Successful, Slightly Famous, Autistic Adult. A special education teacher asked me about talking to some of the parents about sharing my story and now I’m sharing it with you as well.
The person behind TSSFAA and R.O.A.R.
I’m the person who started this and I’m still doing almost all of the work — designing the boards, writing the firmware, building the cases, shipping the devices, recording the videos, and answering the emails. R.O.A.R. is my passion project.
I have a full-time job that pays the bills and (thankfully) leaves enough left over to fund the parts and the travel. Sponsors and donations cover the rest. Everything I make goes out the door free to the people who need it.
For years my plan was simple: when I retire, I’ll go back to building special needs devices for people whose needs aren’t being met. At some point I decided I didn’t want to wait that long. The need is now. The skills are here now. So I’m doing it now.
The bigger goal is an ecosystem — not a product line. Open designs that a family, a classroom, a clinic, or a local maker space can take and adapt to fit the actual person in front of them. Where the answer to “I wish this had a bigger button” or “she really needs an icon for X” isn’t “file a feature request and wait,” it’s “here’s the file — change it.”
And it’s an invitation to build a team. There are far more unmet needs than I can reach alone. R.O.A.R. is a project and a place to plug in — come build with me.
Two names, one person, one project.
T-Rex Successful Slightly Famous Autistic Adult
The name is autobiographical. T-Rex is from my middle name. The acronym came from a call to represent autistic adults publicly — to show the world that we can be successful (full-time engineer) and even slightly famous (the YouTube channel has an audience that isn’t my mom). I leaned into the description and made it the project name.
Rex’s Open Assistive Resources
R.O.A.R. is what TSSFAA does: open-source AAC devices, the hardware files, the firmware, the build instructions, the demos, and the booth you’ll see at the events I attend. If you ever wondered “where do I actually download / build / use this stuff?” — R.O.A.R. is the answer.
Hear us R.O.A.R. — Giving everyone a voice.
If you’ve been following the project, here’s where things stand.
T-Rex Talker V3 is live on GitHub. It’s fully compatible with all hardware from V2 onwards, and there are now two no-soldering build paths — you only need two specific parts from Amazon and a 3D printer to get started.
The MacD prototype work fed directly into V3, and the next round of devices (sip-and-puff, pocket-sized AAC, and a medium-sized board for limited mobility) is already on the bench.
I’m actively building a batch of 30 devices to give away to autistic children as part of a charity drive, and looking for test groups for the next versions.