Crip Tips #2
Chimps use sticks as tools—we can be at least as creative as that!
These Aren't Just Tongs
While working in an office, I had a set of these at my desk, which I used to pick up a pen or a piece of paper that I inevitably dropped.
This is called a “reacher grabber”. If you ever had hip replacement surgery like I have, they may given you one of these when they sent you home. The trouble with these is that they are really heavy, if you are a weak little thing like me. They also hurt my hands to grasp because of my weird skin condition, epidermolytic ichthyosis, which I have written about here.
But, to paraphrase Dirty Harry, a woman’s gotta know her limitations. Even with the tongs, I can’t pick up something very heavy.
Be Creative
The point of this Crip Tip is to be creative in finding ways to do things independently that you otherwise would need to ask for help with. I find it difficult to open cans of soda, and have used a letter opener, my keys, or a pen to do the job.
It is NOT a bad thing to ask for help if you need it—I still need to ask for help to get the caps off water bottles, because I don't always have a jar opener at hand.
I do pack one in my suitcase, though—you can even open screwtop wine with this baby! There are tons of different types of jar openers out there, but I like this style because of the padded handle.
Tools! Not just for chimps!
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Love the last line 🤭 🐒.
We moved into our current house in 2019. For Solstice (our version of Christmas), we wanted to hang lights over the big windows in our living room. There’s a ledge under these windows (that the kitties love), so I volunteered to scale this ledge to hang said lights. It’s very scary. I did this two years in a row before it dawned on my monkey brain to get a REACHER GRABBER. Now we can easily hang the lights safely from terra firma.
I'm reading What Can a Body Do? by Sara Hendren and she has a lot of stories like these about all the creative hacks with everyday objects that people with disabilities use, like zip ties to make drawers easier to open. It's really interesting stuff and reveals a lot about design, like the picker-upper which I imagine is too heavy for a lot of people compared to simple tongs.