Adaptive Equipment

I've been meaning to write this post for a while now but just haven't gotten around to it.

A while back, I finally gave in and bought some adaptive equipment to make basic tasks easier for myself.  What I bought was simple, and I'm not sure why it took me so long, or why I think of buying the stuff as "giving in."  All I can say is that I wanted to do things "normally."

Have you watched the show "Switched at Birth?"  If you haven't, you should.  It's a good show with a couple of main characters that happen to be deaf.  In one episode, Daphne, a deaf high school student, takes a cooking class with hearing students, taught by a hearing instructor.  She burns her French fries because she doesn't hear the timer go off.  She's embarrassed and discouraged and her mother says, "They didn't have a timer with a flashing light, did they?  Well, that's OK, you'll take your own next time."  Daphne says, "I can't just take my own deaf stuff everywhere," and her mother says, "Of course, you can!"

So I bought disability stuff.  Not to take everywhere, though, just for use at home.

One thing I bought was this rubber grips for opening jars.  They were very cheap and are fantastic.  I was finding it extremely difficult to open things like almond butter or peanut butter and now it's pretty easy.

I bought a scrub brush with a long handle so I can clean my bathtub.  With it, I can sit on the side of the tub and scrub the tub.  I don't have to be on my hands and knees.  I can reach the tile wall behind the tub easier, too.

I also bought a bulletin board to put on my front door.  Remember me complaining in the past about my landlord wedging bulletins into the door so that when I opened it, they would fall to the floor where I have a very difficult time picking them up?  And about Fed Ex and the U.S. Postal  Service leaving packages on the floor outside my door where I couldn't pick them up?  Well, there is a note posted on my bulletin board asking people not to wedge papers in the door or leave packages on the floor.  Papers can be pinned to the bulletin board instead.

Once I bought this stuff, it made life so much easier.  I wondered why I didn't buy it sooner.