Category: Activities for Disabled

Here at Enabling Devices, we’re always on the lookout for new films and TV shows with inclusive, diverse casts and realistic portrayals of characters living with disabilities. “Crip Tales,” a new BBC America series is certainly one to watch.

The series, which aired last month in honor of National Disability Employment Awareness Month, was created by British actor, musician and writer Mat Fraser (“American Horror Story,” “His Dark Materials”). It can be viewed online at BBC America.

“I’m so proud and excited to present these wonderful stories for mainstream TV audiences around the world, thanks to BBC America and BBC Studios,” said Fraser in a press release. “The authentic voices, taut direction and shining performances combine to make a series of diverse and dramatic monologues that are compelling, refreshing, and above all, entertaining.”

The first season of “Crip Tales” encompasses six fictional short films largely written and performed by individuals with disabilities and based on research about the disabilities community in Great Britain. Each monologue focuses on a defining moment in the character’s life.

Fraser, who has thalidomide-induced phocomelia, a birth defect that causes his arms to be short and close to his torso, performs the first monologue, in which he describes the ordeal of auditioning with a disability. Simultaneously poignant and humorous, the monologue pokes fun at the discomfort of casting agents, directors and producers when a disabled actor shows up for an audition.

In episode 2 — “Paper Knickers” — performed by Jackie Hagan — a young woman must decide whether to follow her doctor’s advice to have her leg amputated. Meanwhile, she obsesses about a new love interest, something everyone can relate to.

Episode 3 — “Thunderbox,” introduces us to a young woman (Ruth Madeley), who becomes pregnant from an encounter at a 1960s music festival. Because of her disability, doctors and her family try to dissuade her from keeping the baby.

“The Shed,” Episode 5, tells the story of a disabled children’s book writer (Carly Houston,) who falls in love with her next-door neighbor. Her caregiver disapproves of the relationship.

Fraser made a point of hiring women actors for most of the show’s episodes since women with disabilities are particularly underrepresented in the entertainment industry. It was also important to him that many of the stories focus on romantic relationships and sexuality, he told Zack Budryk of The Hill, “Media portrayals of disabled people typically depict them as ‘asexual or infantilized sexually’ when nothing could be further from the truth.”

Given his own frustrations as a disabled actor, Fraser made sure that almost everyone involved with the series is a person living with disabilities. “I wanted this to be a wholly disabled experience,” he told Budryk.

Fraser was also intent on making a show that included disabled directors “because of how difficult it can be for disabled directors in particular to get a foot in the door in an inaccessible industry. We haven’t exactly been welcomed by the industry [and] for disabled directors it’s been the hardest shlep of all,” he said.

Though Fraser believes that opportunities for disabled individuals in the entertainment industry are increasing, there is still a long way to go. He hopes that “Crip Tales” will make a difference.

Halloween. It’s every kid’s favorite holiday. But who are we kidding? Halloween during the COVID-19 pandemic won’t be the same as Halloween in years past. After all, most families will wisely forego trick-or-treating and Halloween parties to protect their children and themselves from exposure to the coronavirus.

But all’s not lost. HalloWheels, an annual costume design contest and fundraiser sponsored by C.A.T.S (Children’s Assistive Technologies Service), a nonprofit organization in Virginia, will still take place — though with some alterations (pun intended).

Founded in 2014 by Cathie Cummins, a retired pediatric physical therapist, C.A.T.S. provides free gently used pediatric rehabilitation equipment and assistive technology for children with disabilities who reside in Virginia. The program is all about families helping families.

“Cathie created a re-use program that started out of her garage and it’s grown to three locations— Roanoke, Hampton Roads and Richmond [Virginia] and it serves the whole state,” says John Naples, senior program manager at C.A.T.S Roanoke location.

“Adaptive equipment for children is expensive — even more expensive than adaptive equipment for adults,” Naples says. “That’s because children are all different sizes. A 2-year-old can’t use the same equipment as a 5-year-old.” As children grow, their families must keep purchasing new equipment and many can’t afford that he explains. “Cathie wanted all children to have the adaptive equipment they need.”

For the past five years, HalloWheels has brought joy to children who use wheelchairs and their families by asking volunteer teams to design costumes that incorporate the wheelchairs into the Halloween costumes. Members of the public pledge donations to the nonprofit when they vote for their favorite costumes.

In previous (read: pre-Covid) years, Naples says volunteer teams made up of students from local colleges created the costumes. “The kids really enjoy working with the students,” he says. “Last year was the best one ever. We expanded into four locations and the contests were happening all at the same time.” In 2019, recalls Naples, the winning team was comprised of students from the University of Lynchburg who created a [wheelchair-based] motorcycle for a child who dressed up as Captain America.

This year, 16 individual families will create costumes for their children using materials supplied by C.A.T.S with virtual assistance from the organization and its volunteer partners. While everyone who competes will receive a prize of at least $100, the first prize winner will receive a $750 gift certificate and the second prize winner will receive a $500 gift certificate donated by Enabling Devices that can be used to purchase products from the company.

“We are so thrilled to be able to support such a wonderful and creative endeavor,” says Enabling Devices President and CEO Seth Kanor. “We wish all of our customers, the happiest of Halloweens.”

Voting will take place beginning on October 26 through midnight on November 1!  Each dollar donated is one vote for your favorite costume! Click here to submit your vote.

May 1 marks the 71st annual observation of Mental Health Month. According to nonprofit Mental Health America, “While 1 in 5 people will experience a mental illness during their lifetime, everyone faces challenges in life that can impact their mental health.”

Perhaps this has never been more accurate than in the age of COVID-19. These days, we are surrounded by illness and death, fearful of contracting the virus, concerned about our financial well-being and physically isolated from friends, family and colleagues. What’s more, we have no idea how long the current situation will last. Is it any wonder that many of us are finding it difficult to cope?

For people with disabilities and their families, the circumstances presented by the pandemic can be even more challenging. One reason is that people with disabilities are already more susceptible to mental illness. For example, Healthline reports that “depression and suicidal ideation are more likely among people with disabilities due to factors like abuse, isolation, and stressors related to poverty, among others.”

Many of these factors are magnified during the current crisis. What can you do to take care of your mental health or the mental health of your loved ones during this time? Here are some suggestions:

Maintain connections
With schools, community centers, and vocational programs closed to prevent the spread of COVID-19, many of the social avenues that individuals with disabilities typically enjoy are unavailable. But physical distance need not mean lack of connection. Many organizations continue to offer virtual classes, activities and tele-therapy sessions through Zoom, FaceTime or other virtual platforms. Though not as satisfying as in-person meetings, these opportunities for human connection are surprisingly comforting during this time.

Stick to a routine
People with intellectual disabilities and autism are especially sensitive to disruptions in their routines. Though we can’t pretend our lifestyles haven’t changed, keeping bedtimes, mealtimes, chores and other household activities as close to normal as possible will make life more predictable and less stressful for family members who crave consistency.

Practice self-care
Whether you’re living with disabilities and mental health challenges or caring for someone else with those challenges, it’s more important than ever to take good care of yourself. If at all possible, make sure you are eating healthy foods, getting adequate amounts of sleep, exercising regularly and reaching out to your networks.

Find something to look forward to
If you’re home with your family, come up with at least one event each day that’s a pick-me-up. Whether it’s a specially prepared meal, family game, story hour or movie night, anticipating something cheerful can help you get through this trying time. If you live alone, start a virtual book club, play online games with friends, or start a new hobby.

Take a break from the virus
It’s important to stay abreast of developments related to the coronavirus, but it’s arguably more important to protect your mental health. Listening to copious amounts of news coverage can be scary, depressing and sometimes enraging. Limit your news intake, and minimize COVID-related conversations, especially around children who may find them alarming.

Enjoy springtime
May is one of most beautiful months of the year, and enjoying flowers, warm breezes and sunshine go a long way toward improving our moods. When the weather’s good, spend time outdoors, take socially distant walks and appreciate the wonders of the natural world.

Ask for help
If life becomes overwhelming for you or your loved one, and particularly if you or your loved one has thoughts of hurting him or herself, don’t wait. Reach out to your therapist or contact one of these helplines:

SAMSHA: 1-800-985-5990, or text TalkWithUs to 66746
National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 1-800-273-8255

For COVID-19 related questions: Visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.

If you, or your loved one uses a wheelchair you’re well-aware that accessibility is a major concern. Wheelchair users face many impediments when it comes to accessing restaurants, hotels, stores, transportation, historic sites and even city streets.

Wheelchair users who love the outdoors also face obstacles. In recent years, accessible trails and nature facilities have become more common, yet many wheelchairs aren’t designed to handle rugged terrains. Enter: wheelchair user, outdoorsman and athlete Geoff Babb. Babb, who lost the ability to walk after a near-fatal brain stem stroke in 2005, has invented a prototype for an all-terrain wheelchair he calls the AdvenChair.

After his stroke, Babb, formerly a fire ecologist for the Bureau of Land Management, was anxious to get back to his outdoor activities. Yet he found that his wheelchair wasn’t up to the task. He surveyed the all-terrain wheelchairs on the market but found that none of them met his needs. So, with the help of Dale Neubauer, a friend and helicopter mechanic, Babb “modified his regular wheelchair to give it beefier tires, a detachable front wheel, handbrakes on the handlebar, and a harness that would allow a small team to guide him up and down steep terrain,” according to AdvenChair.com.

The adapted wheelchair worked well, enabling Babb and his family to hike sites including Oregon’s Smith Rock State Park, Mt. Bachelor, Crater Lake and Mt. Rainier national parks. But in 2016, when he attempted to hike the Grand Canyon in the chair, it fell apart soon after departure. Not one to give up easily, Babb, his wife Yvonne, Neubauer, and computer-aided designer Jack Arnold went back to the drawing board where they developed the AdvenChair 2.0. The new chair is made from mountain bike parts, not wheelchair parts. This makes it more “durable” and “less expensive,” Arnold told NPR.

According to the AdvenChair website, the newly designed chair has “an adjustable sit-ski seat, adjustable handlebars, larger 27.5-inch mountain bike wheels and high-grade aluminum mountain bike components throughout.” The chair is “human-powered” (not motorized) and can be navigated by one to five people, says the website. It can handle rocky, soft or hilly terrain and its removable front wheels makes it easy for the chair to maneuver through doorways. It is easily dissembled and can be transported by car.

In 2017, when the AdvenChair 2.0 was in development, Babb suffered a second life-threatening stroke —12 years to the date of his first. After the debilitating stroke, Babb had to re-learn to swallow, chew and use his right hand. But it didn’t weaken his resolve to get the AdvenChair on (well off) the road. Currently, Babb and his team are fundraising so that they can bring the AdvenChair to market.

Babb says the effort is “not just for me, but for the millions of people around the world with limited mobility, and even more limited one-dimensional chairs.”

Almost everyone enjoys a night on the town. But for adults with disabilities, finding a safe, inclusive, accessible venue for music, dancing, socializing and romance can be a challenge.

Club 1111 in Baltimore, Md., makes the elements of a vibrant nightlife accessible to all. The only nightclub for individuals with special needs in Maryland, Club 1111 is also believed to be the only one of its kind in the United States!

On the second Saturday of every month, The League for Disability’s Baltimore headquarters is converted into a nightclub. According to the Baltimore Sun’s Yvonne Wenger, “the classrooms become dance floors with disc jockeys playing pounding club music. Merchandise, like sunglasses and blinking rings, is stacked up and ready to be sold, and volunteers wait in a makeshift spa to do fingernails and put on temporary tattoos. A lounge with dim lights is set up for chilling.”

A program of The League for Disabilities, a nonprofit that offers a variety of support services including day treatment, vocational training, camping and recreation, Club 1111 began as a fundraiser in 2015. As news of the club spread across Maryland, the crowds grew. Some nights as many as 700 people from all over the state visit Club 1111. Admission is $10 per person but caregivers and accompanying family members are admitted free.

According to Wenger, “most club-goers have intellectual and developmental disabilities, about a quarter use a wheelchair and roughly one in 10 have visual impairment.”

At Club 1111, adults with disabilities report that they feel free to be themselves, without fear of stigma or judgment. Those with medical or behavioral challenges, their families and caregivers can feel comfortable knowing that a nurse and behaviorist onsite at Club 1111 can intervene should an emergency arise.

“Hallways and doorways are wide enough for wheelchairs,” writes Wenger. “The flashing lights on the dance floor are programmed with the advice of a neurologist so they won’t trigger seizures. Sodas come in plastic cups with lids and flexible straws so they’re easy to drink and won’t be spilled.”

Ideally, The League for Disabilities would like to see people who live with disabilities engaged in a fully inclusive society. Yet, obstacles remain, particularly when it comes to socialization at bars, restaurants and nightclubs. Many aren’t wheelchair accessible and don’t have accessible restrooms. As one woman from the U.K. told Amelia Abraham of Vice, “I’ve got disabled friends who tell me they weren’t let into nightclubs because they were leaning on friends and the bouncers thought they were too drunk. Or because staff says people in wheelchairs are a health and safety violation, like their chairs are going to create an issue if there’s a fire.”

Said a man interviewed by Vice’s Abraham: “When a club has no access, you feel hugely rejected, all the while knowing your friends are having fun without you.”

At Club 1111, these issues don’t exist. It’s hard to understand why more organizations and businesses don’t open nightclubs geared toward the needs of people with disabilities. Hopefully articles in publications like the Baltimore Sun and Vice, and blogposts like this, will raise awareness about the need for them.

On March 25, 1996, 17-year-old surfer Jesse Billauer was at the top of his game. “I was one of the top junior surfers in the world, a month away from turning pro, when I pulled inside a barrel and got thrown headfirst into a sandbar. The impact broke my sixth vertebrae and I instantly became a quadriplegic,” Billauer writes on his website. From that moment on, the course of Billauer’s life changed dramatically. Initially, he thought his surfing career was over. But then he discovered adaptive surfing. In 2001, he founded Life Rolls On, a nonprofit “dedicated to improving the quality of life for people living with various disabilities.”  The organization offers one day surfing and skating clinics across North America. Billauer also became a world champion quadriplegic adaptive surfer in 2015.

Life Rolls On is just one of many surfing programs around the world that serve people with disabilities. According to the California Surf Museum, “Adaptive surfing has made a stratospheric leap both recreationally and competitively. Inventive board design collaborations, between adaptive surfers and shapers, have allowed athletes to perform on the world stage with mind-blowing results and achievements.”

But surfing isn’t only for competitive athletes. In fact, the sport has been shown to provide health benefits for everyone! Cardiovascular fitness, stress reduction, improved flexibility and muscle tone, and greater self-confidence are just some of the positive effects of surfing. Ready to try it? Check out this list of adaptive surfing programs.

1. Surfers Healing

Designed for surfers with autism, Surfers Healing founded by Israel and Danielle Paskowitz. The couple discovered that riding waves with his father (Israel Paskowitz is the son of Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz, Israel’s first surfer!) was the one thing that helped their son Isaiah, who has autism, to relax. Surfers Healing offers free 1-day “surf camps” to children with autism in coastal cities within the U.S. as well as in Mexico and Australia.

2. Surf for All

Inspired by Surfers Healing, Surf for All, a Long Beach, N.Y. nonprofit, teaches surfing to injured veterans, as well as children with disabilities such as cerebral palsy, blindness, and paraplegia. The surfing school was founded by brothers third generation surfers Will, 30, and Cliff Skudin, the owners of local surfing school, Skudin Surf. Well-aware of the “power of the waves and the restorative nature of the ocean” the Skudin brothers were convinced that “no disability was too daunting to prevent them from exposing others to the benefits of the ocean.” They offer adaptive surfing camps as well as Surf for All’s annual Surf Competition.

3. Surfers for Autism

Founded in Boca Raton, Fla. in 2007, Surfers for Autism’s mission is to introduce children and adults with autism to “the healing powers of the ocean.” Since it began, the nonprofit has expanded to provide surfing experiences to people all over the state.  They routinely host 200 surfing students at their one-day events.

4. A Walk on Water

This nonprofit offers “surf therapy” to children with a variety of disabilities including blindness, autism and epilepsy. According to A Walk on Water’s website, “surf therapy is … a form of water therapy whereby the participant is introduced to the ocean and surfing through guided surf instruction, either tandem surfing with an instructor on the same board, or surfing solo with close instructor oversight.” Day-long experiences take place March–November on beaches in California, Texas, Virginia, New Jersey and New York.

5. Junior Seau Foundation

In partnership with the Challenged Athlete Association, the Junior Seau Foundation Adaptive Surfing Camp (named for the late football linebacker) provides 2-day surfing camps for children with disabilities such as paraplegia and spina bifida. The camps even offer mentorship opportunities with elite adaptive surfers!

Swimming is a terrific way to cool off during the summer months and an effective way to stay fit throughout the year. It’s also a safety skill that everyone needs to learn. In recent years, more and more swim education programs have begun to offer swim lessons for people with special needs. It’s no wonder. The National Autism Association reports that, “drowning is among the leading causes of death of individuals with autism.” But swimming benefits children and adults with all types of special needs. Here are just some of the reasons why recreational swimming and swimming lessons are a worthwhile investment:

Swimming improves heart and lung health
According to the CDC, nearly half of all adults with disabilities don’t get any aerobic physical activity. Exercise is an essential part of maintaining one’s health, and swimming is an excellent way for people with mobility challenges to stay fit. In fact, Paralympic swimming coach Queenie Nichols, says “Athletes with disabilities, from below-knee amputations to severe quads, can compete and compete successfully.” That being said, it’s not necessary to be an elite athlete to reap the health benefits of swimming or adaptive swimming. These benefits include strengthening the cardiovascular system without putting undue stress on the body.

Swimming helps people with disabilities to maintain a healthy weight
The President’s Council on Health, Fitness and Nutrition reports that in children with disabilities, “obesity rates are approximately 38% higher than for children without disabilities. It gets worse for the adult population where obesity rates for adults with disabilities are approximately 57% higher than for adults without disabilities.” Swimming burns many calories making it a terrific treatment for obesity.

 Swimming improves motor skills and coordination
Swimming doesn’t require the level of motor skill development and coordination that some other sports do. At the same time, it helps to develop those skills. According to Natural Swimmer.com, “Swimmers of all ages will experience a boost to their brain development, due to the kicking of their legs and movement of their arms at the same time. As you work through this combination, you’ll begin to notice a boost in motor skills.”

Swimming builds muscle strength, and increases flexibility
Swimming strengthens just about every muscle group in the body. Since water helps to support muscles, it’s an ideal form of exercise for those who are unable to do other muscle-building types of exercise. Swimming in a heated pool also helps to increase flexibility by relaxing the muscles. That’s why swimming is such an excellent activity for people with cerebral palsy, who often struggle with spasticity.

Swimming reduces pain
Studies show that swimming reduces pain for people with multiple sclerosis, arthritis and other disorders that cause chronic pain. Swimming and aquatherapy also help to facilitate healing for those rehabbing an injury.

Improves mental health
Research show that swimming improves symptoms of anxiety and depression, reduces stress and fatigue and builds confidence. Participating in a swimming class for people with special needs also provides valuable socialization opportunities.