DDO Contributors

Andrew Yang is a grade 11 student who is passionate about mathematics and computer science. Andrew helped maintain and re-innovate many website pages with modern design elements. He has helped with products management and changed to a new website structure, bringing a unique browsing experience. Andrew has started developing a new DDO Resource  Directory prototype project using React, Next.js, and MongoDB to replace the current framework which is dated. He has self taught many valuable skills that are required for his work while independently researching and documenting every step of the way. He brought about a new outlook to our website that represents positive energy and our commitment to the cause. He excelled in all the projects that he was assigned. Thank you, Andrew, for your invaluable contribution. This position was made possible by funding from the Canada Summer Jobs Program.

Sharujan Rajakumar is a fourth-year Software Engineering student from York University. Sharujan worked as a Web Developer with DDO for the summer of 2021. His primary responsibilities included maintaining and enhancing the website’s user experience as well as developing a landing page on a separate domain to help lead customers to our products. He contributed to the website’s overall appearance by keeping the visual components consistent, as well as choosing fonts that are most accessible. Sharujan coordinated ways to improve the functionality of the website and make it more user-friendly. Sharujan suggested and justified improvements with remarkable end results. He worked towards improving the SEO of the website, as well as optimizing its performance. Sharujan has gained crucial experience with web development through this position with DDO. Thank you Sharujan for your invaluable contribution. This position was made possible by funding from the Canada Summer Jobs Program.

Maleeha Anwar is a recent graduate of McMaster University in Business and Marketing and is now in her first year of Law School at the University of Windsor. Maleeha worked as a Marketing Assistant with DDO for the summer of 2021. Her primary responsibilities included creating social media and email campaigns. Additionally, she identified new innovation grants and analysed their alignment with DDO’s objectives to be presented to the team to decide on the next course of action. During her time with DDO, Maleeha planned and executed a new social media campaign that highlighted the stories of the recipients of DDO wheelchairs in various countries. This campaign resulted in an increase in post reach by 668%, post engagement by 82%, and page likes by 800% within the first month. Maleeha updated all DDO social media platforms to optimize content and ensure accessibility on all posts through the use of alt text. She contributed to increasing DDO’s visibility and expanding its clientele. Throughout her time at DDO she was able to gain invaluable experience and expand her marketing skills. Thank you Maleeha for your invaluable contribution. This position was made possible by funding from the Canada Summer Jobs Program.

Zach is a fourth-year commerce student at the University of Toronto who worked as an accounting assistant in the summer of 2021. He was responsible for preparing financial statements and forms for DDO’s 2020 tax return. He also researched government COVID-19 relief funding such as CEWS, CRHP and CEBA. Zach educated the team on the parameters of the use of and reporting requirements for the eligible relief funding. He helped prepare financial statements and management reports that reflected DDO’s performance to support important decisions. Zach developed a new bookkeeping system to efficiently record multi-currency transactions. He developed a greater understanding of accounting in the context of a nonprofit corporation and gained valuable skills and experience. Thank you Zach, for your invaluable contribution. This position was made possible by funding from the Canada Summer Jobs Program.

Zakrea Shirzad is a first year engineering student from McMaster University, pursuing Mechanical Engineering. Zakrea worked as the Engineering Intern (CAD operator) with DDO for the summer. With the use of Autodesk Inventor, a 3D design software, he helped to model and assemble two of DDO’s lightweight wheelchairs within his work term. Some of Zakrea’s specific work included reading manufacturing drawings to model specific parts for the wheelchairs, placing all of the fasteners onto the assembly and working off of the physical model to constrain the parts together. Throughout his time at DDO, Zakrea learned how to improve his design skills, making him an all-around better engineering student. Thank you Zakrea, for your invaluable contribution. This position was made possible by funding from the Canada Summer Jobs Program.

Rushil Patel a grade 12 International Baccalaureate (IB) student at Turner Fenton Secondary School, worked as a full-stack Web Developer. His primary responsibilities included maintaining and improving both the user interface and the security of the website. He aided the overall appearance of the website through consistency in visual elements. He coordinated efforts to further enhance the website’s functionality to make it more user-friendly. Furthermore, he Revitalized DDO’s social media marketing campaign on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to increase awareness about the organization. Rushil claims that he had the opportunity to further his web development acumen while working with DDO. Thank you, Rushil, for your invaluable contribution. This position was made possible by funding from the Canada Summer Jobs program.

Joseph John, a recent graduate of McMaster University in Economics and Business. Joseph was responsible for the multimedia/graphic design for DDO. From the logo to the product sheets, advertisements and many more. He has created many concepts to be used for DDO’s new branding efforts. He is creative and has a keen eye for branding and marketing. Joseph says that “DDO has allowed me to turn my love for design into real world experience”. Thank you Joseph, for your invaluable contribution. This position was made possible by funding from the Canada Summer Jobs Program.

Angelo Castillo brought us valuable experience working in the social services field working with children and youth in priority neighborhoods for the majority of his career. Angelo’s main responsibility within DDO was creating an Inclusion based program manual which is focused on the sport of Wheelchair Basketball to create a more inclusive and diverse community. Angelo has completed the work that he undertook creating a professional manual. He also has experience in delivering such training sessions. Thank you Angelo, for your invaluable contribution. This position was made possible by funding from the Canada Summer Jobs Program.

Admiro Ndala is a graduate from a cross-functional (integrated) engineering program with a strong interest in product development and innovation. Admiro has experience working with CAD technologies such as Solidworks and Autodesk Inventor to communicate design ideas. He has a professional certification in Solidworks modelling and simulation. During his undergraduate studies at Western University, he enrolled in product development courses and advanced computer-aided design courses that gave him the tools needed to pursue a career in the product development industry. A strong believer in improving people’s lives through engineering and innovation, Admiro is often interested in ways to use engineering design to help less-resourced settings address their needs using local or external resources. He worked with DDO this summer as a CAD Operator helping prepare 3D models of two concepts wheelchairs – D-XJunior and D-XBasics. He also ensured that the engineering drawings were free of error.

Daniel worked as a web developer with DDO in the summer of 2018. He worked to redesign appearance and overall consistency of the DDO’s main website. He also developed creative applications and animations to further enhance the web appearance. Additionally, he focused on making website mobile friendly such that web contents and images are all visible and consistent in different frame sizes. During his work period, he was able to gain a great experience and web skill sets from working with DDO. Daniel was a contributor through Canada Summer Jobs program. Thank you Daniel for your invaluable contribution. This position was made possible by funding from the Canada Summer Jobs program.

Brandon worked with DDO in the summer months of 2018 as our multimedia illustrator. In this time, he worked on multiple assignments which ultimately focused on an overhaul of DDOs branding and image. Brandon contributed to redesigning stationary formats, including product brochures, assembly manuals and fundraising packages, as well as reshooting and editing photographs for multiple DDO products. Finally, Brandon also assisted in the redesign of our website, working alongside the web developer to make sure that both print and web platforms share a coherent theme. Brandon was a contributor through Canada Summer Jobs program. Thank you Brandon for your invaluable contribution. This position was made possible by funding from the Canada Summer Jobs program.

Isayah worked with DDO to redesign portions of our website, as well as improve existing DDO web applications. Isayah was a contributor through Canada Summer Jobs program. Thank you Isayah for your invaluable contribution. This position was made possible by funding from the Canada Summer Jobs program.