Professional Adapted Sports Equipment

Two Inventors.
One Shared Mission.

For over a decade, Frank Hughes has been building adapted equipment in his workshop — not for a market, but for kids. Every ramp, every launcher, every platform started the same way: he saw a student sitting on the sidelines during a game and asked himself what it would take to put that kid in the middle of the action. Fifty-plus designs later, the answer is always the same. It's not about the mechanism. It's about the switch press that gives someone independence for the first time.

Jud Wagner brought the other half of the equation. A longtime physics and engineering educator, Jud first encountered Frank's work when his own students were engaged in community-serving projects through human-centered design. What he recognized wasn't just a good piece of equipment — it was a gap between what Frank could build mechanically and what a student could actually operate on their own. Jud's contribution became closing that gap: designing the interface layer — the servo systems, the 3D-printed brackets, the actuators — that turns a mechanical device into something a single switch can control. He understands both sides of the equation: how the technology works, and how a student needs it to work. That combination is what makes the partnership irreplaceable.

AdaptedPlay exists because the market finally caught up with what they'd already built. Institutional buyers — Special Olympics chapters, state agencies, school districts — have procurement budgets specifically earmarked for this kind of equipment. The commercial alternatives run $2,500 to $5,000 per unit. AdaptedPlay's products deliver the same independence at 85–95% less. That's not a discount. That's a fundamentally different price-to-value relationship, made possible by 12 years of iteration and a partnership built on the conviction that access shouldn't cost a fortune.