#disability aids

[wordysmith101]

They dont ruin pictures and speciaal events too

Disagree? Respectfully, you can argue with a wall🫶

[eptck]

anyway

[balthazarslostlibrary]

Dan Piraro, Bizarro Comics 2006

[tam-is-damned]

i think a lot of people don't realize that when you are in extreme and acute pain you don't have the ability sometimes to reason or communicate clearly. It's harder to understand things and be able to rationalize and communicate and articulate yourself well when your pain is impairing that function. Please be patient with people in acute pain, it takes way more mental energy to come up with a coherent thought or phrase when your body is fighting with you.

[hiiragi7]

Here's some positivity towards people with medical devices that others view as "gross", or "shouldn't be seen in public". It's bullshit the way this gets treated and I want more positivity about it, so I'm making it myself.

People with catheters. People with stoma bags. People with feeding tubes. People who have tubing or medical alterations they can't hide. People who otherwise have medical devices which are deemed "not socially acceptable" and "gross".

Your medical devices deserve to take up space. We should not be made to feel ashamed for devices which keep us alive. We should not be made to feel insecure for the ways our bodies function and the assistance we need to live. You deserve to be yourself, you deserve to exist in public as a disabled person, and you deserve to be accepted and celebrated as yourself, medical devices included.

[canonkiller]

Accessorizing With Disability ✨

I've seen a lot of people (Yes, For Real) reluctant to add disability aids to their characters because those aids are visually unappealing (and in case of character designs, "boring") or they do add aids, but so over the top on aesthetics that they wouldn't actually function (anyone who replaces a wheelchair with a living breathing animal, really)

So here is literally just a list of Shit I've Found While Decorating My Wheelchair. Feel free to add on.

Wheelchair Modifications

Some of these are for fun, some of them are for function, some are both. Many are chosen with intent to be stated at on purpose instead of for the wheelchair itself due to who I am as a person. This is the category I've done the most brainstorming in.

Custom paint jobs / decals (pictured example below, first image)

Bike horns / bells

Bike handlebar streamer thingies

Custom hubcaps and wheel covers (pictured example below, second image)

Clip on, usually folding rear view mirrors

Stickers / decals on seat backs (or patches for fabric chairs)

Handlebar or back bags

Colored / high visibility tape on wheels

Noisemakers / bells on wheels (admittedly these get annoying pretty fast)

Custom seat / armrest cushions

Clip on cup holders

Clip on cane holders

Eyes + Vision

Glasses chains

Pocket magnifiers worn as necklaces or on pocketwatch chains

Sunglasses

Goggles (tinted, to protect from irritation / dry eye, to magnify vision, etc)

Patterned fabric eye patches (pictured example below, first image)

Colored / embossed leather eye patches (pictured example below, second image)

Hearing

Hearing aid stickers / skins (pictured example below, first image)

Hearing aid jewelry (pictured example below, second image)

A note on hearing aid jewelry: I originally got an anon ask that I added here about dangly jewelry causing issues during sign, which was then refuted by other users, so I've removed it. For total clarity it's 2am where I am and I'm trying to minimize misinformation before looking through things when I'm more awake. Sorry for the confusion.

Mobility That Isn't Wheelchairs

Custom paint jobs (pictured example below, first image)

Stickers / decals

Keychains on wrist loops

Attached decorations (within reason) (or without reason I guess) (pictured example below, second image)

That's all I've got for now. Thanks 👍

[sicknsadsicknrad]

I just remembered something my doctor said when he recommended crutches for me. my mum was there and she also used crutches but she had decorated them since she didn't like using them and having them look funky made her feel better. he said (and I'm paraphrasing here since I have an awful memory and I've only just now recalled this appointment lol): "but don't let them do that, we don't want to encourage them to use the crutches". what would I need them for if not to use them??? and I was bullied at school whenever I used mobility aids. having them look cool in my eyes made it just a little bit better.

moral of the story tho: decorate your mobility aids if that's what will make using them more comfortable for you. your mobility aids are there to help you and you're not "giving up" or "being lazy" for using them. put the cool tape on them, pin badges to them, add keyrings, whatever brings you a little joy.

[anim-ttrpgs]

Long story short, due to sudden financial difficulties for one of our team members now and in the near future, we need more patreon subscribers, badly.

You get a crapload of stuff from a subscription.

[tuptastic]

My Service Dog is suspected to be in early Heart Failure (AID REQUEST)

please reblog!

At a routine vet visit to check the progress of a course of antibiotics she was taking for a cold that's been taking all our city dogs by storm, my vet recognized that my 2 year old Labrador service dog, McCoy, had a jugular vein distention. Because this is not supposed to happen in healthy dogs, let alone in young healthy dogs, we chose to run a ProBNP blood test on her, which is used to measure heart health and check for potential damage or heart disease. The "normal" range is <900pmol/L, "suspected" damage is 900-1800pmol/L, and "abnormal" is >1800pmol/L. My dog came back with a result of 1300pmol/L.

We are currently being referred to the CVCA in Louisville, Kentucky, to have an echo performed on her heart to hopefully get a definitive answer on what is going on. However, this is all getting incredibly expensive, and I am a physically disabled student who was not expecting or prepared to suddenly be potentially losing my best friend and partner in everything that I do. I'm asking for any help with funding so we can keep on top of not only these sudden vet expenses, but any of the following expenses that may come due to her results as well as continuing to manage her day-to-day. We were doing just fine before this all happened, but the echocardiogram alone is expected to be a minimum of $400. I'm terrified and I don't know what to do. She's my everything. Any help that can be given, even if its just sharing, is appreciated.

my cashtag is $ikeohh

my ko-fi is tuptastic

i don't know what to do.

[fallenstarcat]

depression is kicking my ass here’s photos from the first time i wore a suit (over a month ago)

[passions-and-pupils]

just a reminder that if an accessibility aid would help your quality of life, then you can use it.

this goes for everything from wheelchairs and noise cancelling headphones to fidget spinners and acupuncture rings. You don’t need a diagnosis to start accommodating yourself. Especially on the mobility side. Trust me when I say that the only people who want those are people who need them. you aren’t taking resources from others you are using them as intended. you don’t need anyone’s permission to make your own life easier.

[reasonsforhope]

By the time Sue Shusterman turns away from the bench at the overlook and back toward the trailhead, she knows the paddleboarders are out in force 300 yards away on the gleaming blue surface of Chatfield Reservoir.  

She knows the high runoff waters have flooded the roots of Chatfield’s willows and cottonwoods, and that the first spring-green layers of the foothills rise to the west like soft fabric. 

How she acquired these life-affirming memories is at first a mystery, since Shusterman is blind and is heading back toward the parking lot making her usual sweep of the path in front with her ever-present white cane.  

But then a friendly voice emerges from the phone that Shusterman is pointing toward the path from her other hand.

A little to the left to stay on the paved path. Looks like there’s a trail all the way down to the beach, about 75 yards, if you wanted to go. I’ll just be here watching, let me know if you need anything. 

The voice is from a live, trained human guide FaceTiming through Shusterman’s phone camera on the Aira ability-assist app. Sight-impaired people have been using Aira’s guides to make it easier to do anything from navigating an airport to filling out an online job form. Now, all 42 Colorado state parks like Chatfield are geofenced to allow any visitor to use Aira for free to stroll the trails with a helpful set of eyes. 

The Aira guides seemingly effortlessly offer what a blind hiker either needs, or wants. If there’s a dangerous steep drop-off on the right, they warn. If the hiker would rather know if the sneezeweed is in bloom or the sailboats are luffing through a turn, Aira offers that instead.

For Shusterman, trying Aira as an outdoors adventure for the first time, the allure was simple: “Independence.” 

“So she’s doing, I think, a phenomenal job of including the necessary safety things, but the perks of the scenery, too,” Shusterman said, as she paused during a conversation with an Aira guide based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. “She’s doing great.”

State accessibility officials recently announced the expansion of Aira to state parks grounds, after previously providing Aira free for other state-related functions such as navigating a government building or getting help on an online site or filling out forms. Colorado cannot control the cellphone signal, though, so parks officials encourage visitors to try Aira at a familiar or close-in park space before ranging farther afield with it. Popular parks like Staunton or Golden Gate contain pockets where signals are not strong. 

For consumers buying access on their own, Aira costs about $50 for 30 minutes of assistance a month. Private employers and governments often buy package access to Aira and other accessibility apps for all employees to use. State accessibility coordinator Theresa Montano, who is blind and accompanied Shusterman on her Chatfield walk, said Amazon buys access so that sight-impaired shipping center employees can navigate steps to pack orders.

Montano uses Aira at her state job, saying the guides on the app can share her computer screen and help her get through an online task in 30 minutes that might take her four hours without help or through older accessibility tools. 

Adding Aira for state-owned lands was wrapped into the overall $250,000 budget for free Aira use on state property and with state websites. The additional utility is an obvious plus, Montano said. 

“This gives blind people the same opportunity to come and enjoy it by themselves or with their family if they want to, and be independent,” she said...

Shusterman walked away taking more from the big picture experience, rather than any particular scenic detail. 

“For me, it was, you know what, I could go for a walk on this path, and I could feel completely safe, and I would enjoy a nice walk and get some exercise, in an unfamiliar area,” Shusterman said. “It’s definitely a real confidence boost for me.”  

-via The Colorado Sun, June 11, 2024

[cy-cyborg]

Tips for wring amputees: its ok if your amputee can't repair their own prosthetics

There's a trope in fiction for amputees to always be these mechanical geniuses who can make and repair their own prosthetics, endlessly tinkering away and improving them. This isn't a particularly trope, and i dont think its harmful or anything, but in reality, prosthetics are REALLY, REALLY complicated, and a lot of amputees cant do their own repairs. And thats ok. Like, prosthetic creation and repair is way, way harder than I think people expect. Well outside the skillset of your standard mechanic, handy man or craftsperson.

People who make and repair prosthetics are called prosthetists. To become a prosthetist, most countries around the world today require you to have completed a bachelor's degree in specifically in prosthetics and orthotics, which covers not only how to make a prosthetics (and orthodics) but a great deal of medical knowledge, physics, how different forces impact "non-standard" bodies, the additional biological wear-and-tear that comes with being an amputee and so much more. This will qualify you to do the job of fitting/making the prosthetic socket (the part that attaches to your body) and putting premade components together to make a functioning device. On top of this, many prosthetists are also expected to have artistic skills, sewing skills, good physical strength and dexterity, IT skills, and more recently, knowledge of 3D modelling and printing.

You want to make all the high-tech components the prosthetists put together to make the full prosthetic? The requirements for that vary country to country, but most will require at least some level study in the field of engineering and/or medicine, on top of what was already required for the prosthetics course.

The reason for all this is because even "basic" prosthetics are extremely finicky, and messing up one thing will have a domino effect on the rest of the body, especially in more complicated prosthetics. It can also result in people getting severally injured if anything is even slightly off. many leg amputees for example end up with spinal issues due to extremely minor issues with their prosthetic that weren't caught until years later, and by then the damage had been done.

Some amputees do learn to do basic repairs. This is most common in places like the US, where a visit to the prosthetist can cost hundred to thousands of dollars (depending on your insurance), but it's also quite common in rural parts of countries like Australia, where cost isn't an issue but access is due to vast distances between major cities. I was personally in this category; as a kid, my nearest prosthetist was 6 hours away. My prosthetist was able to teach my dad, who later taught me, how to do some of the simple repairs, but we still needed to go in every few weeks for the more complex stuff (Kids prosthetic need more adjusting than adults because they're still growing. Also I was rough on my prosthetics and broke them a lot lol).

But even after being taught how to do repairs and having my prosthetics for 20+ years, I only ever did these sorts of repairs to my below-knee prosthetic. I will not do any repairs of any kind to my above knee leg, which is much more technologically complex. Every time I tried, I made it worse to the point where the leg was unusable. I just leave those repairs to the guy who went to university to learn how to do it, and sometimes even he needs to send it off to someone with even more specialist knowledge when it's really badly messed up lol. Last time that happened Australia post lost the package. Not really relevant to this post, I just find the idea of it being sent to the wrong place by accident hilarious, it was one of my more realistic legs too so someone probably had a heart attack when they opened that package lmao.

Anyway, back on track lol.

This isn't even touching on the fact that on some more advanced prosthetics, many features are actually locked behind a security barrier only prosthetists can access. My prosthetic knee has an app on my phone I can pair it to, that allows me to change certain settings and swap between certain modes for different activities that tell the leg to change its behaviour depending on what I'm doing (e.g. a mode for running, a mode for cycling etc). but most of the more in-depth settings I can't access, only my prosthetist can, and he can only gain access to those settings with a security key given to him by the manufacturing company that requires him to provide proof of his credentials to receive it. I don't really agree with this btw, something about being locked out of my own leg's settings makes me feel a bit of an ick, but it's set up like this because people used to be able to access these settings and they would mess with things to the point their leg was virtually unusable. Because altering one setting had a domino effect on all the others, and a lot of folks weren't really paying attention to what they were messing with, all their prosthetists could do was factory reset the whole leg, which causes some issues too. Prosthetic arms are often similarly complex, as I understand it and have similar security barriers in place for more advanced arms. I don't know for sure though, so take that with a grain of salt.

All this to say these are incredibly delicate, finicky and complex pieces of equipment. There's nothing wrong with having a techy amputee character who can do their own repairs, but in reality, that is pretty rare, and its ok to have your character need to see a prosthetist or someone more knowledgeable than them. It's a part of the amputee experience I don't see reflected very often in media. In fact, the only examples I can think of in fiction (meaning not stories based on real people) where this is reflected are Full metal alchemist.

technically I think Subnautica Below Zero also mentions prosthetists are a thing in that world, but its a very "blink and you'll miss it" kind of thing...in fact I did miss it until my last playthrough lol.

[dajo42]

local disabled girl needs a new mobility aid because her legs dont. yknow. work right

hello. welcome to 2025 with daisy. the thing about me is i am Very Disabled and i simply require a new stick to walk. previously i only needed a stick to walk some days. these days though its. yknow. a full time thing. because of the legs. they dont. yknow. work right.

so while i was able to get by before with a pretty standard height stick despite being a foot taller than it was made to accommodate and not being the most comfortable stick in the world to operate i do at this point have to bite the bullet and get a specific extra long stick.

i am here to gently ask if anyone can help me get one of those. i am hoping for a very specific one. this one in particular due to its length and strength and the added bonus of the shape of the grip which will be easier for me to hold as an individual with two fingers on her right hand that dont. yknow. work right.

if you can help without hurting yourself and you wanna!! please do!! all i have to accept help is paypal but yknow mutuals can have my bank details thats fine. with delivery it comes to £33 so thats what im trying to make here

paypal.me/dajojago

or just dajo42art@gmail.com within the app or website yknow

or just signal boost this if you feel like it. if you dont feel like it thats literally fine honestly. ty ily whatever happens

0/£33

(like 41 usd or something)

[tam-is-damned]

feeling sexy and being disabled are things that can exist together. I can have medical devices and a feeding tube and still feel sexy, and i really dislike that people think that the two are completely separate and cannot exist together. I'm allowed to feel confident and love myself and the way i look even if i look a little different, and every other disabled person is too. I love myself and i have a feeding tube, not i love myself but i have a feeding tube.

[claypigeonpottery]

got a cane today

it was immediately helpful 🥲 definitely wishing I’d gotten it earlier