Cerebral Palsy Support Group

Cerebral palsy or CP is the most common childhood physical disability. It is a permanent physical condition that affects movement. There is no cure for cerebral palsy, but various forms of therapy can help a person with the disorder to function more effectively. If you or a loved one has cerebral palsy, join the group to share your experience or get advice from others.

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product modifications

greeneyes1128
greeneyes1128
Hi all,
I know I don't post on here much now-a-days, but I have just been busy.

As I grow and learn to live more independently, I find that I wish some household items that we use every day was a bit modified better for my ease of use. For instance, I remember dragging my hamper in college from one end of the building to laundry. Never did I ever think to get the one hamper that was equipped with roller. That would have made it a lot easier.
With that said, has anyone ever thought about modifying any products to help to better complete daily tasks like laundry, while working in the kitchen, or better organized or just around the house to help them operate better? If so, what modifications to products would you make? Why?

Thanks for your input!
ma1mar4
ma1mar4
I move a basket of laundry by pushing it slowly with one of my crutches. Just like a hamper with wheels, it would be nice to have laundry baskets with wheels.
walksindarkness
walksindarkness
Almost anything you can think up is already out there. Amazon has all kinds of stuff, it just takes some searching. This trolly is an interesting option.

http://www.amazon.com/Hills-FE209501-Panache-Laundry-Trolley/dp/B006XFLBHW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381755386&sr=8-1&keywords=laundry+basket+with+wheels
greeneyes1128
greeneyes1128
Thank you for your responses. I really appreciate it. I have to look at amazon. I have never even thought of looking there.
walksindarkness
walksindarkness
We are going to see a lot of these types of assistance products becoming available. The Baby Boomers are hitting retirement now, and the number of them is huge. People live longer now, and want to remain independent, so this is a huge opportunity for companies to make money serving that segment of the population.

So this is a good thing for us, since many of the assistance devices will be useful for the CP community too. Win-Win...
Justkirarenee
Justkirarenee
The only modified thing I've ever wanted or had was a seat in my shower. There are just some days I can't do it. Everything else I manage to use the usual. Laundry is a bit difficult the days I need to use my cane.
ladydelaney
ladydelaney
I have spastic CP and the hardest thing for me on bad days is combing my hair and brushing my teeth. My husband will always lend a hand if I ask with my hair but the teeth thing is just a pain to deal with. When I shake I constantly cut the inside of my mouth with my toothbrush. It is painful and frustrating. I found putting one of the larger pencing grips on my toothbrush handle has been very helpful. I have it in such a way that if I shake. it keeps it from entering my mouth to far. I have an easier time gripping it and it saves me from hurting myself. My dentist and doctors could not find me a toothbrush with a padded top. What do others use?
jerraw81
jerraw81
This topic is near and dear to me because it will be the focus of my dissertation work. I am totally interested in how people with disabilities "hack" their own accessibility solutions. I have CP and one of my greatest challenges is handwriting. My limited dexterity makes handwriting impractical most of the time. My "solution" is to use an iPad along with a stylus to annotate articles. I sync all of my articles to dropbox, so that I can access them on my PC as well. Instead of writing on articles I annotate them digitally and then pull them up on my computer monitor when I am writing a paper.

I also have a hard time with the top button on my dress shirts so I use a rubber band and a bobby-pin as a make-shift button hook.

I hope you get more replies greeneyes. I'll bet there are a lot of instances of creative and ingenious solutions that members of this community have devised to engage in everyday activities. I would love to read about them!
deleted_user
deleted_user
I don't know if this is a modification or not but I used one of those grabber extensions to pick up stuff off of the floor that I could not reach otherwise. I just wish they were more durable as i keep breaking and "fixing" them with duct tape every so often.