~ Letters Page ~
| Questions
Received... |
Mark, I am searching online for some kind of tool to help my Aunt to button her clothes. She no longer has much use of her hands, and we have her one of the small tools, but it has no name on it. She ordered it from a magazine long ago, but can't remember what the name of it is. I hope to find something similar for her as the larger types of buttons will not work with her old tool and most clothing now has larger buttons. If you know of a good magazine that sells supplies of this type, will you please pass on this information? I loved the picture of your dog. We have a small white dog, a maltese/shi-tzu mix. Your's is so sweet looking! I came across your web site while doing a search on disabilities or tools to help the handicapped. Thanks for any help, Jan CAN ANYBODY HELP??? If anybody can tell us where to buy such a tool, or send me a photo showing what this tool looks like, please email me. Mark ================================= Hi Mark! My name is Heather and I work in Texas. We have been serving children and adults with developmental disabilities for over 50 years. I came across your site today and thought your tips were so cute! Would you mind if I periodically used one in our quarterly newsletter as a space filler? I'm always looking for interesting tid-bits like these to put in. We have a distribution on about 2,800 to folks in Austin and the surrounding areas. Thanks! Heather Thank you for your inquiry Heather. I was hoping readers would find my stuff HELPFUL, but I'll settle for cute... Yes, you may use excerpts from my Practical Helps For The Handicapped website... Would it be too much for me to ask you to follow each excerpt with "More at eiw.com/handi/"? Mark ================================= Dear Mark, I came across your website, while searching for Handicap Accessories. My Father-in-law recently suffered a large stroke, which has left his entire left side paralyzed. He has been hospitalized for 6 weeks, but will be coming home within the next 10 days. We are not prepared. We need some suggestions on how to ready the house to make things wheel-chair accessible. We wanted to get a "lift", rather than build a ramp for entering the house, but have no idea where to look for this. Any help or suggestions you can offer is greatly appreciated. We are in Michigan, so the weather here is a large factor for us. Good luck to you in all your future endeavors! PS: Cute Dog! Tami Dear Tami, My apology for my delay in responding to your query... I've been very busy with broke down vehicles and cold weather problems. I've been meaning to add a bunch of stuff to my site at http://eiw.com/handi showing how I made small ramps at the exterior door thresholds to make it possible for me to cross them without help, but with a person who cannot use both arms I don't think these will help much... While my designing homemade lifts will probably come in the future, I haven't done so yet... I did make a search for "handicapped lifts" at http://alltheweb.com which yielded several manufacturers and I am enclosing links to their information for your convenience. I hope you find these helpful. Mark http://www.thomasregional.com/scal/mckinley/handicapped_lifts.html http://www.thomasregional.com/pnw/ad/handicapped_lifts.html http://www.thomasregional.com/gdv/ahs/handicapped_lifts.html http://www.thomasregional.com/ncal/ehp/handicapped_lifts.html http://www.thomasregional.com/scal/dbmh/handicapped_lifts.html http://www.thomasregional.com/cc/prolift/handicapped_lifts.html http://www.thomasregional.com/txok/fmms/handicapped_lifts.html http://www.atlanticlifts.com/comp_pro.html ================================= Dear Mark, My sister lives in Mobile, Al. my 91 year mother lives with her. When she has to drive her to the Dr. sne has to lift the wheel chair out of the trunk of the car! My sister is in her early 70's, then she has to get my mother in the chair, get her oxygen bottle on wheels and push them both to the check in desk, then go back and move the car! That's with no help from anyone then she has to wait several hrs. to see her Dr. ( he's been called to hosp. on emergency) then she has to do it all over again to get home! If we can find her one I will gladly order it for her for Christmas but it has to be simple to use and strong enough to hold wheel chair so it won't fall off car. We cannot afford to buy another on of those right now. I enjoyed your page may God bless you for helping us and others. It also has to be eazy for my sister to put it on bracket and remove it... Thanks please answer soon.... Frances Dear Frances, My apology for the unavoidable delay of my response... I've been fighting cold weather and vehicle breakdowns. I've also had some difficulty in forming an intelligent response to your query, first because not all wheelchairs are made the same way, and second because no "universal" wheelchair bracket seems to be easily available. Sooooo.... I'm gonna make this try... The average "regular" wheelchair weighs about 40 pounds... There are bumper mounting brackets meant for holding bicycles on the back of cars that should hold the weight... The bike supports would have to be modified to hold the chair and provisions for securing the chair while in motion. That's the cheap way... Here's the expensive way... If the car is heavy enough, and there is a trailer hitch with a two inch square receiver... They make a lift that fits into the hitch and holds a platform which folds down and then lowers to street level which can hold weights that would hold even a power chair... This you might not be able to afford without insurance and her doctor specifying the equipment as a medical necessity. One suggestion I have is to get a bottle holding bracket that will hold the oxygen on the wheelchair... This would make moving her mother and the oxygen easier. If you do have someone who works with metal available to help you, start with a bike rack made to hold two or three bikes... These will be plenty strong enough to hold the chair... It might just take drilling holes to mount the hook parts at proper levels to hold the chair properly... Securing the chair might be as easy as using a flexible tie down strap. I sincerely hope you will find this helpful... I have a saying I often use, "God forbid they'd make anything standard!"... Because of the variations in wheelchair design, this is as close as I can get. Mark Krell =============================== Hello sir I had visited your site, I like your projects, I would like to know about robot medical, if you have some thing about this, please tell me, I am trying find realize my projects private too. It is an arm mechanic robot with 3 degree freedom and 5 degree movement in robotics. It is on the paper only. There are some mathematics errors !!! I try fix and ..forever...I can realize, I will tell you. When you upgrade your page, please tell me, thank you very much. Best wishes from Denis Dear Denis, I know nothing about robot medical... I am posting your letter here with hopes of a reader coming to your aid. Mark ============================== I am a lawyer in Harrisburg, PA and I represent a 46 year old man who has been in a wheelchair since a 1987 work-related injury, for which he receives workers comp benefits based on his earnings at the time. I have recently been successful in getting his driver's license restored. He needs a properly equipped van so that he can get out and get a job. Our law gives me the opportunity to force the comp insurer to equip a van, but not to purchase one. Although it is in the insurer's interest to help with the acquisition costs, it has refused, relying on the existing limitations in the law. Do you know of any source of funds, charitable or otherwise, that might help in the acquistion of a van? Thank you for your considersation. Dear Lawyer, It has been my experience that there are many charities who raise funds to help the handicapped but few who will lend financial assistance... When I needed a one-time assistance of $600 for hand controls for my van, I called 90 community agencies (several of which were United Way agencies) in the Atlanta Metro area and I couldn't get a dime. The hand controls waited for seven months until I could scrape up the money... Ask me if I'd ever again give a cent to the United Fund, go ahead... ASK ME! Mark ============================= Dear Mark: I came across the Practical Helps project webpage and was very impressed with what I saw and read. I am an above knee amputee (right leg). I migrated to the US three years ago. Till now, I do not drive. The problem is that I have not found a driving institute that is equipped to teach me or found a car agent that will reverse the gas pedal from right to left side. Can you give me any suggestions on this? Look forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, Chitra Dear Chitra Because there are Federal Laws governing what can be done to motor vehicles, repair shops are unable to make the pedal conversions you want. But, you can still drive! Hand controls can be installed on vehicles with power steering, and power brakes, and automatic transmissions. They are easy to use. Cost is about $600.00. Essentially, hand controls are a lever that when pushed forward applies the brakes, and when pulled rearward applies accelleration. The horn button and the headlight hi/lo beam switch are mounted on the lever for easy access. You can legally take a driving test with a vehicle so equipped. I sent you an email asking you what city you are in because I was going to recommend a certified dealer in your area, you can try "Handicapped Mobility" in your yellow pages or most care dealers usually know which shops are doing installations in their area. After driving normally for many years, it took me a very short time to get used to using hand controls. I hope you find this helpful. It's always nice to make new friends through my web site. Mark ================================ |
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