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Parents with disabilities face numerous challenges when caring for a newborn. Besides the usual lack of sleep and anxiety about such a small and dependent life, much of the equipment for infants and children present substantial barriers for parents with disabilities. Changing tables are built for standing, bathtubs can take two (or more!) hands, and cribs require parents to have substantial flexibility and lifting strength.
My wife is a little person; when she's out of the house, she uses crutches and a lower-body brace which doesn't bend. Around the house, we keep most of our storage low to the ground, and our activities are on the floor. Dinners on a patterned rug with Japanese lacquered-table place settings are a great way to relax after work!
By the time we brought our newborn daughter home from the hospital, we had been thinking about the many adaptations needed to care for her. We consulted several times with Judi Rogers at Through The Looking Glass in Berkeley, a terrific organization with resources, advice and designs, and uniquely engineered equipment for parents with disabilities. Some things were easy: a mover's dolly to move stuff around; a padded changing pad on the floor; trays of supplies stored in our coffee table. But using a crib posed a challenge.
Cribs are manufactured according to strict standards designed for the safety of the child, not for universal access; the railings are all 2 or 3 feet off the floor, and a foot or more above the mattress. Because infants are left unattended in cribs overnight, they need to be built in such a way that the child cannot accidentally fall out of the crib or get any part of their body (especially the head and neck) trapped between components. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has publicly accessible explanations, as well as formal guidance for manufacturers.
My wife is a little person; when she's out of the house, she uses crutches and a lower-body brace which doesn't bend. Around the house, we keep most of our storage low to the ground, and our activities are on the floor. Dinners on a patterned rug with Japanese lacquered-table place settings are a great way to relax after work!
By the time we brought our newborn daughter home from the hospital, we had been thinking about the many adaptations needed to care for her. We consulted several times with Judi Rogers at Through The Looking Glass in Berkeley, a terrific organization with resources, advice and designs, and uniquely engineered equipment for parents with disabilities. Some things were easy: a mover's dolly to move stuff around; a padded changing pad on the floor; trays of supplies stored in our coffee table. But using a crib posed a challenge.
Cribs are manufactured according to strict standards designed for the safety of the child, not for universal access; the railings are all 2 or 3 feet off the floor, and a foot or more above the mattress. Because infants are left unattended in cribs overnight, they need to be built in such a way that the child cannot accidentally fall out of the crib or get any part of their body (especially the head and neck) trapped between components. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has publicly accessible explanations, as well as formal guidance for manufacturers.
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I started with an IKEA "Leksvik" crib. At $159, it costs substantially less than many cribs (if you don't have an IKEA nearby, it is possible to order the crib for delivery, but that adds about $250 to the cost!) and it's made of solid wood. The frame which holds the mattress is bolted directly to the two end panels, as part of the structural support. That means the side rails are not essential for structural integrity. The crib also converts to a toddler bed, so the matteress can be placed much closer to the floor. Their "Hensvik" crib ($129) has the same structural design and dimensions.
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Also, I did not properly design the door latch for users with manual dexterity limitations. Shortly after I published this, someone sent me an e-mail with pictures of their really awesome version. Depending on your specific needs, his ideas might be useful to you.
In any event, good luck, and congratulations again!
PS: you need some kind of footer or this-is-the-end-of-the-page indicator on your http://www.slac.stanford.edu/~kelsey/docs/Madeleine/crib/ page. It ends rather abruptly after the LOM.
If you or your wife has a disability, would you consider contributing thoughts or comments to my forum topic on how you do your projects? Or anything else you care to contribute to the Assistive Technology Group?
Thanks, and thanks more generally for all of the excellent discussions.
The sad thing is, she and I have similar problems, I have had heart surgery because of it, and am now making major changes in my life style in order to change my condition. I need to convince her to do that same. But I have no control over another, and so it goes on. Sorry to be so ambiguous with this in public, but it does weigh on my mind, and elsewhere ;-)
Thank you for your suggestions. At this point, I believe that a family counselor would probably be more useful then anything.
Mike yes, I am one too
And you?