Easter egg hunts and traditional egg coloring can be a challenge for kids with differing abilities. However, with a few tweaks, there are many ways to include kids with a variety of ability levels in the fun. Challenges: Wheelchairs & walkers: Difficult to navigate grassy terrain, and often can’t easily bend down and pick up eggs. Blind or low vision: Can’t locate eggs […]
When has a story changed you?
Disability is a subject on which it is difficult to get people to engage. No one dreams of or hopes for disability to affect their life, so it’s logical that when the subject comes up people have the tendency to shy away or change the subject. It’s simply an uncomfortable topic when you aren’t neck deep in […]
ReelAbilities Cincy: “If you shovel the ramp, we can ALL get in!”
On Tuesday, I attended the LivABLE Luncheon as part of the Cincinnati ReelAbilities Film Festival. This session featured a short film called The Commute about a man’s attempt to travel across New York City in his wheelchair. The film was followed by a group discussion about solving the everyday challenges facing people with disabilities as […]
ReelAbilities Cincy: FIXED lit my brain & heart on fire
This afternoon I helped host the film FIXED: The Science/Fiction of Human Enhancement at the Cincinnati Museum Center as part of the ReelAbilities Film Festival. The film questions commonly held beliefs about disability and normalcy by exploring technologies that promise to change our bodies and minds forever. The story is told primarily through the perspectives of […]
Challenge: Get Connected. Feel Empowered.
I am going to tell you a story about an important lesson I learned, and how that lesson helps me today. Story: As a single young adult, I had a very hard time finding a church that made me feel at home. No church compared to the one I attended as a child. When I walked […]
Tripped up by good intentions and imperfect visions
Being a parent to a child with a disability can be a very humbling experience. Last year about this time, one of my biggest worries was getting Lily set up in a “big girl” bedroom before our new baby arrived in April. We hit road block after road block getting this seemingly simple task accomplished. My […]
3 Reasons Why You Should Never Underestimate My Child
My daughter recently aged out of our state’s early intervention program. As a result, she now attends preschool at our local elementary school, getting physical and occupational therapy as part of her school day. The initial process of qualifying for therapy and establishing her IEP was overwhelming and confusing. However, once we got past that […]
Building your “Medical Gut”
A few years ago, soon after starting a new job, I was asked to answer an important business question by a senior leader in the organization. The problem: I didn’t have the right data on hand to answer the question because the report had not yet arrived from the supplier. My manager nonchalantly told me, “Just go with your gut. What does it tell you?” […]
More flexible sitting solutions for kids who need extra support
After my article highlighting the Leachco Prop R’ Shopper for unstable sitters, I learned about a few other sitting help products which I want to share. I have not tried these personally, but I reviewed the comments and highlight key points reviewers have made below. Firefly – GoTo Seat The GoTo Seat looks like a wonderful way to […]
Allowing children to be children, regardless of mobility
I crossed paths with the question “when is the right time for a mobility device?” multiple times today. It’s an interesting question. When really is the right time? Should we follow a “typical” timeline? Should we listen to our mommy gut? Should we be the catalyst for getting new equipment? Should we assume our medical team and therapists […]
Before I Met Her
I read an article today posted by themighty.com (My Child’s Disability is Not a Tragedy) which threw me back to my daughter’s prenatal diagnosis of Spina Bifida when I was 20 weeks pregnant. What I realized while reading this article was at THAT moment I DID believe it was a tragedy. It felt like a tragedy. It hurt. It […]
Bowling: A surprisingly inclusive sport
On Friday afternoon, Lily and my husband played hooky to celebrate my brother-in-law’s birthday. We went Bowling! Old school. It. Was. Seriously. Awesome. Why? Bowling is actually quite fun. The local place, while a bit run down, was super friendly. They weren’t busy, so they provided an exclusive toddler lane FREE of charge! Everyone could participate.
A solution for shopping with an unstable sitter (baby or toddler)
We have family coming to visit, so I did a BIG grocery shopping trip today with my son who is 3 months old. As I wedged red bell peppers and pints of blueberries around his carseat, precariously perched salad mix on a tower of condiments, and stashed chicken breast on the ledge under the cart between […]
5 Clever ways to encourage kids to pull up onto their knees
My daughter, Lily, is a pretty determined little kid, but she is also incredibly stubborn. In order for her to do something, she must actually want to do it, or it becomes a battle of wills. Personally, I hate that battle because in the end, everyone loses. What I’ve found, however, is that I can get her to […]
How a sleep sack saved my daughter’s toes
When I became a parent, the last thing I expected was to have to protect my child from eating her own feet. Eating might be too dramatic of a term. Chewing on or teething on her feet is more accurate, but those terms seem a bit understated based on my experience. Most kids put their feet […]
Helping kids “Do it MYself!” with a basket
Two of my daughter’s most frequently uttered phrases are, “I do it MYSELF!” (with oomph and passion behind the words) and “I help you?” (with her head cocked to one side, blinking her eyes sweetly). She wants so badly to help and to be independent. One of our biggest challenges in helping her do things herself […]
Simplify: Use this great app to log catheterization volumes
My husband Dan and I are a bit on the geeky side. We both seek out data like fruit flies to a banana, so when we received my daughter’s diagnosis of Myelomeningocele (more commonly known as Spina Bifida), we wanted information. LOTS of it. One of my most vivid memories is sitting side by side on the couch with […]
Tip: Sew bells on socks to encourage leg movement
Two big events occurred when my daughter Lily was 4 days old. The first was that we learned she would need a shunt to relieve the pressure in her brain from hydrocephalus. We knew this was likely, but it was still hard to hear. The second was magical. She kicked her legs for the very […]
What in heck-fire is an Ability Hacker?
A “good hack” is slang for a clever solution to a problem, and “hacking” is the act of creating that solution.
I am the “ability hacker” because I create solutions that encourage my daughter to grow stronger and build new skills, and am also always on the lookout for interesting solutions developed by others.