by Christina Mills, CFILC’s Deputy Director
Homemade ZipZac |
Thank goodness there is handy, easy-to-use assistive technology available for people of all ages. The best part is that it’s gotten better looking and more portable over time. It may sound ridiculous to some who came before me, but I when I think about my first wheelchair and how clunky and easy to tip over it was, I think about how many less fractures I might have had if my chair would have been lightweight and more aerodynamic. Then again, who am I’m fooling…I was a daredevil and was constantly testing my limits in that little metal E&J chair. I was about five or six-years-old when I got that chair. Nowadays kids with mobility disabilities have all sorts of cool wheelchair options and even toddlers have mobility devices like ZipZacs. In fact, a friend of mine who has a child with a mobility disability made a homemade ZipZac that is very similar to the real thing and works the same way.
Sliding drawer stairs |
My favorite kind of AT is homemade, like the crib we made for Olivia when she was born. In my experience, it’s typically more affordable and is more likely to fulfill a specific purpose. Another one of my parent friends has a daughter who is short stature and was having trouble using her bathroom sink to wash her hands, brush her teeth, etc. A stool sort of solved the problem, but it also took up a lot of space and still didn’t make it terribly easy to use the entire sink area. To solve the problem the family converted the storage space under the sink into two different height built-in slide and lock steps, which gives their daughter the independence she needs.