Dressing Lab

I love lab. I love pretending I have disabilities I don't have; it reminds me to be thankful for little things--like arms. Today, there was an Occupational Performance in Context dressing lab in which we silly students attempted to do what people with hemiplegia, limited hand use, and hip limitations do every day. We tried putting on clothing with limited function in various body parts. I'm thrilled with these labs; they're entertaining, educational, and fun during the process of doing. But when it's over, I get a smidgen of a microscopic trifling idea of how difficult it is to live with limited range of motion, loss of function, or amputation. I exit the lab knowing that I really don't know anything. So what if I tried putting on shirts, sweaters, front-closing garments, pants, socks, shoes, housedresses, outerwear, and closures (buttons, zippers, snaps, etc.) as if I recently received a hip replacement or suffered a stroke. We all cheated. It's hard not to use functioning limbs. Flexion of the hip, bending toward feet, raising arms over the head, trunk rotation. How do you will your body not to function? No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't feign being a hip replacement patient.

Anita, the OT professor gadget expert AKA adaptive equipment professional, had us explore such things as the zipper pull, the zipper ring, the button aid, the sock aid, the long-handled shoe horn, the dressing stick, and the reacher. It was difficult for us all to use these items. I couldn't imagine clients/patients with affected areas using these gadgets. Towards the end, I threw my hands up and shouted, "Why not just use Velcro?!" Or how about the sock aid? You need to wear tube socks for you to be able to use this device. Only one person in class had socks high enough. Ankle length socks are the style. Does that mean people who need to use sock aids have to be out-of-style?

So, in the end, we all excessively flexed our hips to raise ourselves from our seats, rotated our trunks to grab our coats on the chairs, and walked with perfect stability out the door. I believe fieldwork will be a rude awakening.

Resources for adaptive equipment:
Sammons Preston
Ableware
Rehability