Hacks that help

Hacked. Though the term seems somewhat harsh, even aggressive with little attention to detail, much of the care with our family has involved several life hacks that have made life easier for our girls. Living with a disability or a specific physical challenge in a world created for the able-bodied requires resourceful solutions. Henry Claypool, a consultant and formerly with American Association of People with Disabilities recently offered this insight:

“The disability community, I would argue, were the original hackers. The world is not a very accessible place and therefore disabled people have largely been self-reliant in terms of how they’re going to get to and go to and do things in our society. And that creativity and ingenuity is something that I think is a kind of an unappreciated resource in our society.”

I remember taking pieces of cross-country skis and trying to zip-tie them to the girls’ wheels, in an attempt to make wheelchairs that could ski. Then I learned that former snowboarder Patrick Mayer had created Wheelblades. Due to an injury, he was using a wheelchair for mobility and was determined to find a way to access the snowy terrain. He invented blades that simply snap onto the four wheels of a wheelchair. Now the only zipping we do is over the snow.

From tires to tub

Sometimes hacks come from the least expected encounters. A conversation with my mechanic led to the creation of an affordable deck-to-hot tub lift for Rachel and Janneke. Back in 2019, our family was granted a Jacuzzi hot tub through Children’s Wish Foundation of Canada. The tub was positioned alongside our back deck, but we knew it was going to be a challenge to lower the girls safely into the water.

While waiting for the winter tires to be removed, I told our mechanic I was puzzling over how to get the girls into the spa, as the costs quoted by vendors were way beyond our capacity (common for equipment in the disability world). We already have a ceiling lift system that provides motorised control and moves along a track system that is permanently installed in the girls’ bedroom, but this doesn’t help with access to the hot tub. He listened and pointed out how the team was using a lift suspended from an attachment on a pole to pick up the tires from the main floor and bring them up to the storage loft. The low-cost simple attachment on the pole was not fixed; it could swing a full circle around the pole. 

The short version? We now have a pole on our deck with an attachment fastened that offers an eyebolt. All we need to do is hook the indoor lift onto the eyebolt. It swings to pick up the girls from their chairs and safely lowers them into the water. Best tire swing ever!