A pair of North Shore inventors were among five people honoured for improving the lives of people with disabilities through innovation.

The Gizmo Awards, given out at the end of June, recognize people who have built devices -- or gizmos -- that help people overcome barriers in their day-to-day lives.

North Vancouver's Ruben Ugarte won the Quality of Life Award for designing a wheelchair bike trailer, which will allow children to go out on the bicycle trails with their family.

Colin Adamson, of West Vancouver, took home the Innovation Award for retrofitting a sip-and-puff control interface onto an electrically powered adjustable bed. Adamson's client already had the bed, but the control device was not suitable for him. The bed's manufacturer didn't respond to Adamson's questions, but he was still able to graft the sip and puff controls onto the bed using off-the-shelf parts and some open source software.

The Gizmos are presented annually by the Tetra Society of North America, an organization that connects volunteer engineers with people whose physical needs cannot be met by existing commercial aids. Tetra's Vancouver chapter completed 112 projects last year.

Tetra was founded by former Vancouver mayor Sam Sullivan, who became a quadriplegic following a skiing accident. Sullivan challenged B.C.'s engineers to devise low-tech solutions to the daily challenges faced by people with physical disabilities.

"We are hosting these awards because we want to shine a light on our volunteers who give so much to Tetra," said executive director Duane Geddes in a release. "In addition, we hope that through their example we can encourage other motivated individuals to come forward and help people with disabilities to achieve greater independence."