A simple fix can make a big difference
March of Dimes needs handy volunteers to start a DesignAbility chapter in Niagara
She texts with her tongue. Every single letter is selected from the screen of her smartphone with the tip of her tongue. One. At. A. Time.
Yes, she could use speech-to-text technology. Certainly, it would be easier. But that would mean people around her could listen in on personal messages, so she’d rather just type.
It’s about dignity. Independence. And empowerment. Ashley Corbett lives with quadriplegia. She is 30 years old.
In 2006, one day after her 18th birthday, she was driving through Dunnville on her way to her boyfriend’s house in Cayuga, when her car was hit broadside, just behind the driver’s door.
She lives with her parents in St. Ann’s and uses a motorized wheelchair. She breathes with her right lung because her left is paralyzed. Inevitably, every winter, she is hospitalized with pneumonia, usually over her birthday in November and during Christmas. Except for this year. She was given a tracheotomy, the third since her accident, which makes it easier to clear mucus from her lungs.
Corbett has no use of her left arm. It sits in a foam holder attached to her wheelchair. And while she can’t use the fingers of her right hand, she can bend her wrist enough to grab a bottle.
She also lives with an acquired brain injury that affects her shortterm memory.
And she has dreams. One day, she’d like to volunteer to help people with special needs. “I want to give back for what people have given to me,” she said.
She was in Grade 12 at Lakeshore Catholic High School in Port Colborne at the time of the accident.
At school, she helped another student who used a wheelchair and then took him out every Friday night so he could sing “Oh Canada” at a local hockey game, then out for pizza.
She wanted to be an educational assistant.
She also loves playing cards. Especially the card-and-marble game, Tock. She could play it every day. And if she ever did get bored (a purely hypothetical notion since that would NEVER happen, she says), there’s always Uno.
She can grab a card between her index and middle fingers. But she can’t hold an entire hand of cards herself.
And that bothered her. A lot.
Then one day, she met the creative, problem-solving mind of handyman extraordinaire Mark Ewer, a retired executive type from Hamilton with a soft spot for helping people.
He is part of a volunteer network of inventive people who are both skilled with power tools and adept at conceiving custom-made solutions to everyday challenges faced by people living with physical disabilities. Through the March of Dimes program, DesignAbility, some 120 projects last year were created to help people overcome barriers to work, play and other daily activities.
And Ewer had an idea that would help.
He crafted Corbett a wood block to hold 10 cards in slots, on two levels. The block was kept in place on a tray – which he also designed – using magnets off a cupboard door.
Simple. Inexpensive. And yet, so very important to her life.
“It gave me independence,” said Corbett.
He also figured out a way to secure a purchased cellphone holder that came attached to a thick flexible hose, to her tray. That way, she could position it as needed and keep her phone steady as she typed.
Corbett received a new wheelchair two months ago, so she’ll be needing Ewer’s help once again.
Ewer worked for some 18 years as executive director of three different children’s aid societies, including the Catholic Children’s Aid Society of Hamilton, and then was an administrator at three long-term care facilities for nearly a decade. Nearing retirement, he happened upon a mall display for the DesignAbility program and knew this was his next venture in life. That was 15 years ago and he’s been a volunteer with the Hamilton chapter ever since.
In Niagara, the March of Dimes is hoping to restart a chapter that had existed for about a decade before volunteers dwindled, said Elaine Darling, DesignAbility’s program manager. It’s looking for volunteers who have access to tools and a shop. It would even be ideal for a tech class at high school or college, she said.
Darling, an industrial designer, started the program 20 years ago in Oakville. Referrals come mostly from occupational therapists who can’t find the exact product to meet the often very personalized needs of their clients, she said.
Once screened by the provincial office, project referrals are given to individual chapters. Volunteers meet monthly to brainstorm solutions and collaborate, then work with the person to better understand the problem and solution, she said. The only cost to the person is a donation to the program or price of the materials, making it affordable for those on a fixed income.
Projects can be simple or technologically complex – but always have a direct impact on someone’s quality of life, Darling said. Blocks of wood to raise a chair allow a person to get in and out without needing a caregiver’s help. Modifying the side of a crib, to either slide or swing open, gives a parent who uses a wheelchair the ability to reach their baby.
A man living with ALS – amyotrophic lateral sclerosis – was unable to use his hands to operate the controls on a hospital bed or use his upper body muscles to push himself up and out. He lived in a long-term care facility and could walk but needed assistance to get out of bed.
A volunteer who was an electrical
engineer rewired his bed to give him foot controls which he used to lower the bed and raise the head so he could sit up and get out on his own, she said.
“It gave him independence and wellbeing,” added Darling.
Ewer even made a vertical device that straps a person in, so they can stand up and take a solid swing at a golf ball.
It just might be in his genes. “I come from a family of inventors,” he said.
His grandfather and father were both fix-it types. His dad, a production manager at Ford in Oakville, was a “prolific submitter of suggestions” to the company on ways to save time and money. In fact, he won many prizes for his innovative ideas, including a stereo system, a TV and a car.
Ewer’s workshop is filled with metal, plastic and wood odds and ends, many of which eventually will serve a purpose beyond their intended uses.
He once used a hinge from a ratchet arm to make a cup holder that attached to a wheelchair, but swung away when needed. And he regularly uses the D-shaped handles off lawnmowers to create easy-to-grasp handgrips that, when attached by a cord, allow a person in a wheelchair to close a door behind them, or even open a fridge door.
“We take everyday things used for one purpose and we repurpose them,” he said. “I like the challenge of creating things that have a positive effect.”
DesignAbility
A March of Dimes program. www.marchofdimes.ca/EN/ programs/Designability/Pages/ Designability.aspx
Have a look at some projects. www.marchofdimes.ca/ EN/programs/Designability/ projects/Pages/Projects.aspx
To volunteer with the Niagara chapter, call Elaine Darling at 1-800-263-3463 ext. 7211 or email designability@marchofdimes.ca