Black Disabled Woman Wins BIPOC Inventors Grant to Make Bike Adapter for Amputees
written by Sterling Schuyler
If you’ve read her book It’s About Damn Time, or if you’ve listened to any interview or podcast she’s done, you’ll know that Arlan Hamilton is all about writing (and then manifesting) headlines.
So in January 2021, Adero Knott tagged Arlan on Instagram in an image with the headline “Black Disabled Woman Develops App that Makes Customized Prosthetics Covid-Proof for Amputees.”
“While conducting market research and surveys for my app idea, I decided to put myself out there and made a post on instagram,” Adero says. “Shortly after, Arlan DMed saying she wanted to meet me, and the rest was history.”
Since then, Arlan has personally backed Adero’s company AK Prosthetics with capital and mentorship. “I was drawn in by Adero’s passion, overwhelming talent and vision, and her grit,” Arlan says. “She always seems to be in forward motion. She has a mission and will not stop until her arrow hits the target.”
Not only is this an industry Adero has been personally familiar with for the majority of her life (she identifies as a congenital below-elbow amputee), but she’s also dedicated nearly a decade to making prosthetic limbs accessible and inclusive for underrepresented communities.
Her incredible story, ambition, and drive is why Arlan’s non-profit organization Project Cover awarded her the first BIPOC Inventors Grant to pursue her work on developing a bike adapter for amputees.
Adero’s Story
While working in China from 2013 to 2015, Adero’s weight fluctuated and her prosthetic arm didn’t fit right, which led to chronic pain. When she returned to the U.S. to have a new one designed, it took months for the physician to send the prescription to the prosthetic’s office (prosthetist), who then needed to send the claim to the insurance company.
Up until then, Adero’s interactions with doctors had been through the children’s hospital, which treated patients up to the age of 18. This experience made her realize just how inefficient and expensive the prosthetics industry is.
And, naturally, she realized she’s the best person to solve this issue.
If you aren’t familiar with the cost of prosthetics, it starts in the low thousands and can easily cost up to $100,000 for a custom prosthetic — which most amputees need in order to be comfortable, but can’t easily afford.
In 2016, Adero won Di-Ann Eisnor and Lupe Fiasco’s neighborhood Start Fund pitch competition, which allowed her to launch her company AK Prosthetics. For four years, Adero worked full-time from 7am to 4pm, and then spent her evenings and weekends building an app for amputees to order and receive custom prosthetics at affordable prices.
In 2020, she was laid off at the start of the pandemic. Like any entrepreneur, she saw this as an opportunity to focus full-time on her mission. She dove into the concept of a 3D printing vending machine that amputees could send scans of their limbs to, and then have affordable custom prosthetics printed. (Remind you of anyone?)
Building a Bike Adapter and Beyond
After a number of challenges, successes, and pivots, Adero is now working towards shipping a bike adapter. “Bikes are fun, sustainable and a great way to keep your body healthy,” she says.
She had an incident in China when her limb wasn’t securely holding the bike handle (due to the chronic pain and discomfort of an ill-fitting prosthetic). “I bought a used bike and was excited until my prosthesis slipped off the bike handle, and caused me to run into a railing that separated the bike lane from the bus lane,” Adero recalls. “I ended up flipping over onto the bus lane with my bike, where a bus was coming at me and I had maybe three seconds to get back into the bike lane. That scared me and kept me away from bikes for a while.”
Some time after that, Adero moved to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, where bicycling is the way of life. “I saw how everyone biked and enjoyed it, my fiance even rented out an accessible bike,” she says. She enjoyed the mobility and exercise that biking offered in Amsterdam, and now that she’s back in Chicago, she wants to encourage that same level of activity in other amputees. “I want to show them that we can still do these activities safely,” she says.
How Project Cover Empowers People to Achieve Their Next Milestone
Project Cover started with sending books about startup and venture capital to aspiring entrepreneurs. Since then, the mission expanded to giving $500 microgrants to projects that could reach a significant milestone with that additional capital.
“Project Cover launched a few years ago with $5,000 from an inheritance I received from my father, and has grown by leaps and bounds through generous donations, including $50,000 from venture capitalist and author, Brad Feld,” says Arlan. “Project Cover’s new BIPOC Inventors Grant was inspired in part by Adero. I look forward to the work she and others will do with these grants.”
With the $10,000 BIPOC Inventors Grant from Project Cover — in addition to the $100,000 she has raised through pitch competitions and angel investors (like Arlan) — Adero will continue and complete a third phase of research and development for AK Prosthetics, which includes the bike adapter prototype before going to market.
But Adero’s ambitions don’t end there. She still intends to build a SaaS platform that helps prosthetists, insurance companies, and doctors streamline communication and production. She also plans to launch an education program to support teens who want to build solutions for prosthetics, and send them abroad to help under-served countries.
“I was blessed to figure out early in my lifetime that my disability was not a disadvantage but an advantage. Making customized prosthetic limbs and adaptive wearables accessible and inclusive is my destiny,” Adero says.
So while she hasn’t yet developed her app and vending machine for customized prosthetics, she’s clearly on her way to manifesting that headline.
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If you’re interested in supporting grants like the BIPOC Inventors Grant, learn more about Project Cover and donate to our non-profit