DisabledRecreations

DISABLEDRECREATIONS.COM
2ND ANNUAL
WHEELCHAIR FISHING TOURNAMENT
SEPTEMBER 18, 2010 11:00 A.M. TO 3:00 P.M.
WILLIAM P. PACK MEMORIAL PARK, MOUNDRIDGE, KS

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For people who have always wanted to play Playstation games, but can’t use a hand controller, we have found a special controller for you.

This controller can be held on your lap. It has control buttons that are easy to push or hit with your hands or can be controlled by a switch. This is great for a lot of different people with control or hand coordination problems. The controller can be purchased here. The website also has a list of recommended games to use with this controller. You will need a PS or PS2 to use the controller, but it would be worth the investment.

Lindsay has a Home Stereo System that is hooked into a small Boom Box Stereo with a analog tuner, that we have hooked into a switch. She can turn it on when she wants to, as long as we have the switch where she can reach it or touch it.

At night when she needs something she will hit the switch over and over to turn it on and off until she gets the attention she needs. If she needs a drink or doesn’t feel good or just wants us to figure out what her need might be, she will keep hitting it until we get her taken care of. If she just turns it on and leaves it on, then she just wants to listen to music. It’s a great set up, but the secret is finding an analog tuning stereo, most are digital, and when you switch it off with the switch, it will not stay on the station that you had it on, most likely it will be static. So if you can find one or you might have an old stereo tuner, hang on to it. We had to hook the stereo’s together so she had a better sounding stereo system then the old cheap system, we used RCA to Headphone adapters to hook them together. Works great, again it gives her something that she can control or operate on her own. The stereo is plugged into an AbleNet PowerLink 2 control center that allows switch operation of electrical appliances. We have used this control center for other things also, it is very important to involve a kid with disabilities as much as possible, it makes them feel independent.

Lindsay’s room is setup with a Laptop computer with a 26” Flat screen television that has a PC (RGB) port to plug the computer into. The reason for the Flat screen (tv) is it’s easier for her to see, it is a bigger screen than her monitor, and makes game playing better for her. We have a dual mouse set up so we can help her move the mouse pointer when needed.

She has her Mouse mounted in a photo album for easy touching. We have two hard sponges stuck to the inside bottom of the photo album and mounted the mouse between them with Velcro on the bottom of the mouse to hold the mouse in place so it doesn’t move around. We mounted a small rectangular piece of sponge to the top of the photo album with sticky puddy. The top piece we have mounted, just makes contact with the left click on the mouse. We have this piece mounted with the putty so we can move it around to get the best connection with the left click as possible. When the photo album gets wore in you need to adjust it to hit the best place on the left click. It seems to work best when it is hitting the highest point on the left click. Just experiment a little while, but this works great for kids with limited control of their arm and hands. The bigger the area to hit, makes it easier for a disabled person to make contact.  Any questions just ask, we will help. We use the swivel clamps and rods to hold her mouse control book in place. We can adjust it to the easiest place and most comfortable position that she needs it to be. We have a 1/2” aluminum rod bolted to her medical bed, that has a swivel clamp connected to it. The swivel clamps have 2 half inch holes that 2 pieces of 1/2 inch rods slide through. Then we slide another swivel clamp on the shaft that is connected to the rod we have bolted to her bed. We then slide the rod that we have bolted to her (photo album) mouse controller and position to the easiest place for her to hit.  So (2) swivel clamps and (1) 2 foot rod and (2) 1 foot rods are needed for her mouse controller.
We have the Computer and Flat screen setting on a Hospital bed table. We can slide it under her bed and have it where she wants it to be. It will adjust up and down as well. She plays numerous games with just the click of the mouse, remember she has limited use of her right arm and hand. She can play games by herself or with a little help from us. We will have a list of games and programs to download on this site. Remember after you have this setup, you need to do your own searching for the games that work best for the person playing the games. We are going to list her favorites and a few others that she can play. For kids with lack of control or constant movement of their arms, such as spasm’s,  extra rods and swivel clamps can be added. If you would position the rods on both sides of the persons arm they are using to play with the controller, you can attach rubber bands or springs to the shafts and to the persons hand or arm and help them stabilize their movements. People with spastic control problems would be able to perform much better if you could stabilize their movement. You can actually slow their movement down to help them control the mouse without the continuous spastic movements. My daughter doesn’t have that problem, but I have used them to hold her hand up when she is tired or being lazy. You can hold their hands up just enough, that it is practically touching the controller and activate it with limited movement. It makes it easier to click the mouse mouse when he/she is tired or being lazy. I will have pictures to show what I mean, it looks like they are a puppet, but they will enjoy themselves so much, it wouldn’t matter. We will update future findings. As far as the games, some you can download for free, some you pay for, but well worth the entertainment. It also gives you a chance to do your own thing. Lindsay’s setup isn’t cheap but you can go cheaper, if you want to know how, just ask. There is nothing better for a person with disabilities than to do something themselves. It doesn’t matter how they do it, as long as they can do it without help. Any achievement my daughter makes, makes me work harder on creating more things for her to do.

We have  1/2 “  x   1/2 “  swivel clamps and  1/2″   aluminum rods with holes drilled in them that we use for a lot of different things. The swivel clamps and aluminum rods are much cheaper than buying the special clamps and tubing that are made for wheelchairs. We use  (2)  1/2”   x   1/2”   swivel clamps and  (1)   1/2”  x  2′   rod and  (2)   1/2”  x   2′   rods for everything. We also have 4′ rods that we slide through her trey holder that is connected to her wheelchair. The long rods allow you to slide several swivel clamps on at one time and have multiple rods connected to them. By doing this you can have multiple connectors to do several activities at one time.

We are willing to help create mounts to work on the wheelchair you have, not all wheelchairs are the same. You can buy wheelchair mounts, but It was cheaper for us to use the ones we created. I think the clamps and rods we use, probably is the best creation we have come up with so far. They adjust to any position and are light weight. They have held up for us and we have been rough on them. The aluminum rod we use is light weight, yet very sturdy. When I get the rod, I usually take a  sander and smooth them out to get the nicks off and help the clamps slide much easier. I drill multiple  5/16”  holes for different things that we mount different things to. I usually file the holes after drilled. I use  1/4”  bolts and wing nuts to mount everything to the rods. The clamps I use, I will spread open a little bit with a good size screw driver, that way when you tighten them, they will open up more for easy adjustment. What it does is creates more gap, it will not hurt them or break them, just stretches them a little. Shouldn’t have to do it more then 1 time. My daughter has a wheelchair with a tray holder on her armrest. We stick the rod through the  3/4”  tubing. I would recommend  5/8”  tubing, but that’s how her chair came. The tubing came with a  1/4”  hole with a nut welded on it, that a  1/4”  threaded male knob screws into, that holds her tray from moving. You can also use (T) handle  1/4”  bolts. I went ahead and drilled another hole and welded a nut in a different place on her tubing, just because when we use the  1/2”  rod that holds all her switches, controllers, fan, dvd player, umbrella holder and fishing pole, it just gave the rod more support from possible slipping or moving when we had excess weight or were using longer rods for other recreational use. She has even enjoyed lighting fireworks with an extra long punk holder and shooting roman candles safely.  I don’t recommend this, but with this setup it made it safe and fun. With the price of the clamps and different lengths of rod and a little effort of drilling some holes, you can mount your devices and adjust to every angle needed to enjoy your entertainment. A person could just drill holes through the tubing and rod, with multiple holes drilled in the rod for different adjustments, but you will have to take out the bolts and move to a different hole and it won’t swivel in your tubing. I advise you to use drill holes in your tubing and have nuts welded onto the tubing, then use the your  1/4”  male threaded knobs. I advise using (2)  1/2”  x  1/2”  swivel clamps, (1)  4′  rod and (2)  1′   to  1 1/2′  aluminum rods. We will try to help or create a mount for the chair that you own or you can buy your own wheelchair mounts elsewhere, but they are very expensive.

The problem with fishing in the summer is the heat. Lindsay gets extra hot from the medications she is on and the fact that her body just doesn’t regulate heat very well. It can cause serious problems and is something we have to be very aware of. Lindsay can not sweat, this doesn’t allow her to get rid of her body heat. If we do not keep her cool, she would not be able to enjoy the summer time activities, which we do a lot of.

When we go fishing (or any outdoor activity when it’s hot) we take a spray bottle filled with cool water to keep her wet and cool along with a couple of wet wash cloths or towels. Keeping her head as wet as possible is very important, we will soak her hair down. We also have about 2 dozen reusable cooling bandanas we wrap around different parts of her body or just lay on her skin. we keep them fresh throughout the day.

We also have a patio table umbrella that we put up for shade.  We made a removable and adjustable Stake to hold our Umbrella up in a stable position. When you are finished using this for the day, just pull the Stake out of the ground. It works great. Drill some  5/16″  holes about  6″  apart in a  5′  long piece of metal Pipe or a Rod that is smaller then the inside dimension of the umbrella tubing. Slide the umbrella over the Pipe or Rod for the height needed, then just put a  3″  bolt through the hole and set the umbrella down on top of the bolt. The bolt is the stop, so the umbrella wont slide down the Pipe or Rod that you knock in the ground. We can move it wherever we want and can adjust the position based on where the sun is. You can find patio umbrellas at garage sales or ebay and craigslist at a reasonable price.

We also take a 12” fan with us, set it next to her, and plug it into the DC-AC inverter which is hooked to the 12 volt battery that her fishing pole is connected to.

Before we purchased the Elec-tra Mate reel, Lindsay’s dad built her a homemade electric reel that we used for two or three years. It wasn’t easy but between dad and brother, Quinton, we made a great creation.

We took a Zebco reel with casting lever on bottom and took the reversible lever off and threaded the lever hole. We bought a small electric motor and threaded the shaft of the motor. We had to buy a brass bushing to install in the motor because of too much play in the shaft, which caused vibration. We screwed the motor shaft into the reel hole and installed a small mount that connects with the fishing rod, so the motor wouldn’t turn with the shaft. It worked great except it didn’t have a gear reduction gearbox between the reel and motor so it reeled in faster then we wanted it to. We had to get a motor with enough power to be able to bring in a big fish and small enough to reel the lures in at a slow enough pace. Lindsay caught a lot of nice big fish with this reel. Would probably work better with a different ratio reel or a smaller electric motor. This reel cost around $40.00 to make.

We are actually looking in to building a new design in 2011, I really think we can build these electric reels at a cheap price and possibly distribute in the upcoming years at a reasonable price.

One of Lindsay’s favorite things to do is fish. We can only do this five or six months of the year but, she really enjoys this.  We are lucky enough to have a farm pond about a mile from our house that is full of fish. She has caught catfish, bass, bullhead, and perch.

Lindsay currently has an Elec-tra Mate 450PTH mounted to a Penn 450 fishing reel . The Elect-tra Mate cost about $350.00 and the Penn reel about $90.00, but it was well worth it. We made our own switch to save money. we  hook it up to a 12 volt battery. She can activate the switch that we made better than the one that we could have gotten with the reel. We special ordered the electrical cable and switch cable at a  6′  length with no ends. We then finished the electrical cable with battery terminal ends to hook up to our battery. The switch cable is wired to the switch we made. This switch is made from a car horn that we have installed inside a small photo album. We drilled two holes in the photo album for the switch to mount to. The car horn sets inside the photo album. We decorated the photo album with purple duct tape and some stickers to make it look neat. All Lindsay has to do is touch the top of the photo album to activate the switch. It will stay activated until she lets off. The reason for using the photo album is Lindsay couldn’t activate the toggle switch that you can get with the reel, and the photo album is a lot bigger area for her to touch. You can adjust the travel in the horn switch or add some weight to the album cover to make it activate with less pressure or force. This switch can be used with your hands, feet, chin, elbow, or just about any part of your body.

We use  1/2  x  1/2″  swivel clamps and  a  4′  x  1/2″  aluminum rod that slides through her wheelchair trey holder tubing. The trey holder tubing connects to her arm rest. We slide  1 – 1/2″  x 1/2″  swivel clamp on each end of the  4′  rod. We then slide another  1′  long aluminum rod through the 2nd hole of the swivel clamp. We have  2 -  5/16″   holes drilled through the rod that we bolt the  2″  x  1′  piece of plastic pipe to. We slide the fishing pole butt end (rod handle) into the plastic pipe that is located at the back of her chair. We then have her switch located just in the front of her arm rest. It is bolted to a  1/2′  x   1′  piece of aluminum rod that slides through the other swivel clamp towards the front of her chair. This holds her switch in position and with the excess aluminum rod sticking out of the clamp, we set the rod tip on. We then add another clamp on the excess aluminum  1/2″  rod. The clamp keeps the rod tip from being pulled off by a fish.

We have different size pillows to make Lindsay comfortable and position her for different things such as sleeping, supporting her in her wheelchair, holding her arm in position to make it easier to play games. Grandma Hett also creates pillows of different shapes and sizes. We have learned throughout the years to make pillows that fit Lindsay as needed for comfortable positions for different activities. The pillows have to support her and allow her to move around enough to activate her different switches and suit Lindsay’s needs.

We have made it possible for Lindsay to see things up close, even though they are far away, by connecting our camcorder to her portable DVD player. This can be used for looking around when you are at the lake, vacation sightseeing, watching a ballgame, looking at your bobber when you are fishing, or any event that you have to see a long ways away.

Anyone who has limited vision or has limited motion to be able to look around, can see what you and I see. There is nothing worse than when you say “did you see that” and the person can’t turn to see it . It’s frustrating for that person that they missed out on seeing something cool. Until we came up with this idea we just didn’t say that phrase, because explaining what you saw just isn’t the same as seeing it yourself.
An adapter is needed to connect the camcorder video cable to the DVD player video cable.

When we go fishing or are at an outside event we always have an umbrella to keep as much light out of Lindsay’s face as possible. Her eyes are sensitive to light and some of the medications she is on make her prone to sunburn and heat exhaustion, possibly even heat stroke.

We have a small Radio Flyer clip on umbrella and have made an umbrella holder for a standard size umbrella that will adjust where ever we want it to better block the light and provide shade. I created an adjustable umbrella holder out of plastic pipe that attaches to the  1/2”  rod and swivel clamps. It adjusts to any angle and height for your chair. When possible, we also take a large patio umbrella. We just drive a stake in the ground and mount the patio umbrella over the stake for more complete shade.

With cortical vision impairment, bright lights such as sunlight and fluorescent lights tend to bother Lindsay. Everyday is different or even the time of day is different when you have cortical vision impairment. We have two sets of glasses for Lindsay.

Her regular glasses darken when outside, but sometimes it’s not enough, so we have an extra pair that are a darker shade for sunny days or when it’s extra bright from snow reflection. If you just have regular glasses, flip up visors could be used.

We have found that putting a cap or hat on Lindsay before going into stores helps block the store lights. She actually has a large assortment of caps and hats.

We use a medicine dropper to give Lindsay drinks. She doesn’t handle liquids too well and the medicine dropper allows us to control the amount that goes in her mouth better.

We recommend starting with something thicker, like chocolate milk or a milkshake, that doesn’t go down the throat as quickly. Aspiration is probably easier with liquids, so please consult your doctor and speech therapist before trying this to see if it is a possibility for your situation. If you get permission, we recommend you have a suction machine close by at all times.

We have a Black & Decker Handy Chopper Plus  we use to chop Lindsay’s food into fine pieces. Lindsay has a g-tube that we use for giving her medicines, but she is eating by mouth thanks to the food processor.

She eats what we eat, even though there is a chance she may aspirate by swallowing wrong. We had swallow studies done when she was younger that she didn’t do too well on, but we worked with a Speech therapist that observed her eating and decided to take the chance. We have a portable suction machine that we have to use almost every time we feed her, but she does have a good cough reflex, so she is able to cough and then we can suction her. If you feel like we do, we feel it’s only fair she eats the same meals we do, because to us it’s torture to smell what’s cooking and not be able to eat it. Please consult your doctor and speech therapist before trying this to see if it is a possibility for your situation. There are exercises for the tongue that your speech therapist might be able to help you with. If you get permission, we recommend you have a suction machine close by at all times.

This is Lindsay’s RC Traxxis Stampede. We had to modify her controller so she could actually play with the truck. This has actually become her favorite activity this summer. We have built some jump’s in our yard, believe me this thing gets air. Quinton installed a more powerful electronic system in the truck also, Lindsay has a need for speed. We had to install a wheelie bar on the rear of the truck. It can actually ride a wheelie 40/50 feet or more. She had to create her own body, 80’s model shortbed chevy. She helped paint all the diff. designs, it turned out great. We are in the process of drawing up a track, then making it in our backyard. We might just make a drag racing track for now, then when we get enough items needed, we will build a bigger track. Depends on the interest we get.

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