Join us for a hands-on Makeathon where we’ll co-design and prototype sensory dog vests for students with diverse learning needs.

Dates: Saturdays – Nov 8, Nov 22 & Dec 6, 2025
Times: 9.30am – 2.30pm
Location: Our offices 8 min walk from East Richmond train station 

We’re teaming up with Canine Comprehension, an organisation that brings therapy dogs into schools to support student wellbeing, emotional regulation, and engagement. These custom-made dog coats will support fine motor development and emotional regulation through interactive elements like zips, buttons, textures, and more. This Makeathon will include plenty of brainstorming, collaboration, prototyping, and hands-on making.

Key sessions:  

• Kick-off, discovery & design | Saturday November 8, 9.30am– 2.30pm   

• Prototyping, testing & development | Saturday November 22, 9.30am– 2.30pm   

• Making, finalising & wrap-up | Saturday December 6, 9.30am– 2.30pm   

Over the sessions participants will: 

• Explore and finalise vest designs  

• Adapt or recreate sewing patterns in three sizes (S, M, L) 

• Brainstorm and test different sensory elements 

• Sew and assemble the vests 

• Attach tactile and interactive features 

• Document the process to create open-source build instructions

Ideal for: sewers, crafters, learning specialists, educators, makers, and anyone who love good doggies. 

🐾 Therapy dogs may be visiting too! 

Get involved
Interested?  Fill out this quick form
Please note that our event coordinator, Hanna, is on leave until Sept 15, she’ll reply to your application after she returns.
Applications close Oct 3rd.

In 2025, TOM Melbourne collaborated with the Monash University Service Design Studio, a unique interdisciplinary course that brings together Industrial Design and Master of Architecture students. This studio focused on applying design thinking and processes to improve systems and services, working closely with MediStays — a provider that connects people with disabilities and hospital patients to accessible accommodation tailored to their needs.

The challenge arose from recent legislative changes to NDIS-funded short-term accommodation (respite) stays. Under the new rules, family members could no longer stay alongside individuals accessing these services, meaning many were facing independent stays for the first time. The students’ brief was to reimagine and improve the experience around booking, checking in, and staying, specifically for people with disabilities using the MediStays service.

Over the semester, the students researched user needs, mapped the current service journey, and generated design solutions aimed at making the entire accommodation process more accessible, efficient, and user-friendly. The project also emphasized open-source principles, with the goal of sharing the resulting designs publicly so that other hotels and accommodation providers could adopt and improve accessibility practices beyond MediStays.

This collaboration marked TOM’s first engagement with a service design course tackling systemic challenges in disability accommodation. The partnership yielded promising concepts and highlighted the potential for design to create meaningful impact not just on individual tools, but on the wider service systems affecting people with disabilities.