Wednesday 12 May 2010

Disability Aids - Make Life Easier For the Disabled By Radhika Verma Platinum Quality Author

Disability aids are vital to those who suffer problems with executing work with two hands. These are people who have been rendered disabled due to some major sickness or some other problems. In order to help them carry on their work in the normal way, disability aids are manufactured. This helps them making their life a lot easier than what it would have been without these aids. The kind of disability aids that an individual might require depends on the person only. It is the problem that a person faces that decides the aids that he/she will use for carrying out their respective jobs. Following is the list of a few disability aids that come of significant use.

The first and foremost aid is the stocking aid. Aiding the individuals suffering from the problem of bending down to reach the foot and wear their own socks. These stocking aids constitute a gutter that is made up of plastic material. These gutters are shaped in a certain way along with the attachment of cotton tapes in it. The sock is then put over the gutter. The foot is placed inside the gutter. The cotton tapes help in pulling the socks up the leg and subsequently the sock. In this manner, the sock is worn by a person who has problem wearing it by bending one's back and reaching the foot.

There are openers that help the people who have problem with their hands or wrists to open bottles of ketchup, jam and other such bottles and jars that necessitates the use of hands and fingers. Third type of disability aids that comes to our minds are Lifts. Now what are lifts? Lifts are certain machines that help in lifting people from specific areas, be it a bathtub or a set of stairs. These lifts are of varied types and come for numerous applications. It is for the individual to decide the type that he/she requires to use.

For people, who have problems in balancing their upper bodies in a stable manner, there is something known as Grab rails. These grab rails are installed for those who have mobility problems in their upper bodies. These rails come in varieties of shapes, sizes and angles. These grab rails are available to home users as well, in their different variations. One can purchase and fix one to their homes according to one's specificities. These grab rails require the act of screwing and drilling in order to fix them to their appropriate place. The prices of these rails also vary according to the variation of their shapes and sizes. A portable book holder is a much sought after disability aid. It can be used by anybody for that matter, not just the disabled. These portable book holders are light weight and can be easily moved about. These holders relieve the strains on one's hands, necks and shoulders that might occur due to the handling of a book. The holders are provided with extended legs that help in placing the reading material at suitable distance.

Thus with the help of these disability aids, the old and disabled people can make their lives much more convenient and comfortable that would otherwise have been a cumbersome and a complex one.

For more information about disability aids simply visit http://www.mobilitynow.co.uk/disability-aids-that-enable-mobility/. Do your research and find the disability aids that best fits your needs and price range.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Radhika_Verma

Tuesday 11 May 2010

Telescopic Wheelchair Ramps for Disabled Access by Jenny Pilley

Providing access to parts of a home or building is crucial in ensuring the quality of life of wheelchair users is not diminished. There are a whole host of access solutions available, but not all are ideal for every situation. However, telescopic wheelchair ramps offer a level of versatility that makes them suitable for a whole range of uses. They provide unrivalled levels of accessibility for users, whilst ensuring compact storage within the home or vehicle. They are also lightweight and easily transportable, ensuring ease of use and manoeuvrability for individuals.

These telescopic wheelchair ramps can be used at any lengths, with some being able to be adjusted up to 3m long. They can therefore offer exceptional safety of access even in areas of long distances or significant height differences. The perforated non-slip surface provides plenty of grip in the full range of weather conditions that might be experienced.

Telescopic ramps should conform to Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) legislation. These regulations promote the civil rights of disabled people - a cause that should be championed by any wheelchair ramp provider you discuss your requirements with. This will be reflected in the quality and affordability of the ramps that they supply.

The Perfolight range of telescopic and combi wheelchair ramps are designed and crafted from anodised aluminium with safety and functionality in mind. This surface prevents stains and corrosion, ensuring a long-lasting access solution for the user. The use of anodised aluminium results in a lightweight yet strong access ramp, offering extreme compactness for handling and storage. They are simple to use and easily set up in seconds, ensuring the minimum of disruption to the user's movements.

These types of ramp are considered an excellent choice for providing a bridge over a threshold that has unequal levels on each side. Their low kerbs and long bevel sides greatly increase the clearance area of scooters and power chairs as well. For anyone who is seeking a lightweight and easily portable access ramp that can be extended in length over a substantial distance then telescopic wheelchair ramps could be just the solution for you.


About the Author

Written by jenny Pilley, Content Writer for Creare,Web Design

Horse riding offers a range of benefits for disabled people in the UK by Craig Cole

Horse riding is something that is enjoyed by tens of thousands of people right across Britain every single week. To some people it is a sport that they take extremely seriously in order to take part in competitions across the globe, while to others it is simply a wonderful way to get out into the countryside, stay fit and spend quality time with an animal.

For a number of people though, horse riding means something more. There are thousands of people in the UK who suffer from a mental or physical disability, for whom horse riding is not only a source of immense pleasure, but a form of therapy, providing a tremendous boost to their general health and wellbeing.

There are groups across the country who run specialist riding centres and while riding benefits different people in different ways, everyone who attends the courses is better for it. Some people will benefit physically from riding, while many others will grow in confidence - something that is quickly reflected in other parts of their lives as they interact with other people.

In the UK, the Riding for the Disabled Association has been creating opportunities for disabled riders for the past 40 years. It now has 500 member groups across the country that in turn help in excess of 20,000 people take part in horse and carriage riding and vaulting activities. Contact with animals alone can be enough to benefit a person, but many disabled riders get much more out of their riding sessions. From achieving personal ambitions such as sitting on a horse for the first time, right up to improving posture and developing muscle groups. Horse riding can have a massive range of therapeutic benefits.

Anyone who is thinking about taking up horse riding, whether they are able bodied or disabled needs to make sure they have the right kit before getting onto a horse. Safety must always be the top priority, and wearing a suitable riding helmet whenever you get on a horse is right at the top of the list.

Using the internet to find riding gear is one of the easiest ways to get hold of the kit you need. Online merchants stock everything from horse saddles to equestrian clothing, and by shopping on the internet you are much more likely to find a bargain. Have a browse around and see what deals are available now.


About the Author

Craig Cole writes articles on horse equipment

What Are Motability Cars? by Roger Thurston

Motability cars are vehicles that belong to the fleet that is part of the not-for-profit company, Motability Operations. They have more than 500,000 customers and have a dealership network of 4,500 dealers. The program allows those that are on disability living allowance to trade or apply the allowance towards a vehicle on a Hire Purchase or Hire Lease agreement.

Almost 95 percent of those that qualify for the program choose the lease plan and they can trade vehicles every three years. That makes the Motability fleet one of the largest providers of used cars you will find at auto dealerships. You can get a good-quality used car at an affordable price and it is in good repair.

When you hear a used car dealership mention motability cars, it helps to understand that they might not be any different than any other vehicle, other than they were part of the fleet operations of Motability. Since the company is operated as a not-for-profit company, owned by major banks, it helps the disabled get transportation, and the affordable leases are quite popular. At the end of the lease terms, the used car dealerships will then re-sell these cars that were part of the lease fleet. For that reason, you might hear the term quite frequently, when you are looking for a used vehicle.

There is no need for concern because there will be a constant market of these motability cars, since they are coming off lease quite frequently. Since those that are on this plan can start a new lease on a different vehicle every three years, it helps those that are disabled get transportation, but the program also offers many dependable used cars to the consumer market, as well.

Because there is a 60,000 mile allowance over a three year lease period, you can assume that most of these vehicles will be below that number. In the rare occurrence that higher mileage is obtained, there will be discounting on the price accordingly. The thing to consider is that many of the vehicles don't come near reaching the allowance so there are many low-mileage used cars to choose from in the UK.

If you are in the market for a used car, you might consider the advantages that these leased vehicles can offer. Because they are part of the fleet program of Motability, there are service centres that have taken good care of the vehicles and many people that want to remain part of the program will take good care of the vehicles that they lease. As a consumer that is looking for a used car, this can offer peace of mind over buying a used car from an individual and can offer some reassurance over other vehicles that might not have been part of this beneficial program.

When you are looking for used cars at the dealerships in the UK, do not be surprised to hear about the Motability program periodically. Since Motability is the largest provider of used cars to the dealerships in the UK, chances are you will run across some of these cars in your search for a reliable and dependable used car.
About the Author

Roger Thurston is an expert writer for the automobile industry. If you are looking for motability cars then find out more information at his preferred site Lookers Van Dealership .

Thursday 6 May 2010

HOME :: Health-and-Fitness / Home-Health-Care 10 Great Ideas For Buying Toys For the Disabled Children By Joann Grant Platinum Quality Author

Children with disability are special in their own way. They would require all the attention and care that would aid in their growth and development. You need to constantly keep a check on their desires and demands. Because, if they are not met with, their personality can degenerate to the extreme levels.
Talk of normal or disabled, all children love toys. No child has similar liking. What happens to be a fun-toy for one might not be of interest to the other. So, while picking up a toy for your child you need to get the right type of toy as per his liking. Besides, added care is needed while choosing toys for disabled children. They are special and therefore their toys also have to be special. Here are top 10 toy buying ideas for disabled children:
1. Building blocks: Building blocks will help your disabled child in developing their motor skills. The toys that fall in this category are alphabetical blocks and colored blocks that come in different shapes and sizes.
2. Paints and coloring pencils: This is the best tool for those disabled children who are deaf and dumb. Paints and coloring pencils give them an effective medium to express themselves with colors. Besides this, the responsiveness to a particular color form your child will help you to connect to your child's psychology and thus understand him well.
3. Stories with repetition or rhymes: Development of proper speech is very important for a disabled child. So, you should always try hard in this direction at the earliest possible time. In doing so, you can take the help of various books that come with stories in easily comprehendible languages.
4. Mix and match toys: Besides development of good speech, the other important thing that you need to take care of in your disabled child, is the sense of mental ability coupled with cognitive skills. For this, there are available certain toys, which involve sorting and grouping numbers, shapes and colors.
5. Board games: Board games help your child develop cognitive as well as motor skills.
6. Toys with light: Development of the sense of active visual stimulation is also very important for your disabled child. To aid this, there are several toys like "flashing molecule ball" that help in improving your child's responsiveness to the visuals.
7. Musical instruments: Musical instrument toys like drums, guitar, piano, to name a few will be helpful in developing musical interest in your disabled child. Such toys help in generating creative ability with the other skills of cognizance and motor.
8. Stretch-Eze: This is a very unique toy. This toy is ideal for your child in developing creative movements and is also useful in exercising.
9. Books with pictures: Pictures are great way by which you can build your child's imagination. These books will contain various riddles and stories based on different themes that will help your child build understanding powers.
10. Calculator Cash Register: This is one of the most perfect toys for your disabled child. The toy features a calculator and also includes false-plastic money with bills, coins and also credit cards. The purpose of this toy is to develop and encourage mathematical skills and quick learning ability in your child.

HOME :: Health-and-Fitness / Disability A Note On Types Of Disabilities By Joann Grant Platinum Quality Author

Various physical and mental impairments can hamper or reduce a person's ability to carry out his day to day activities. These impairments can be termed as disability of the person to do his day to day activities as previously. Let's take a note on types of disabilities here.
Mobility: This category of disability includes people with varying types of physical disabilities. This includes upper limb disability, manual dexterity and disability in co-ordination with different organs of the body. Disability in mobility can be either an in-born or acquired with age problem. It could also be the effect of some disease. People who have a broken bone also fall into this category of disability.
Spinal Cord Disability: Spinal cord injuries can sometimes lead to lifelong disabilities. This kind of injury mostly occurs due to severe accidents. The injury can be complete or incomplete. In an incomplete injury, the messages conveyed by the spinal cord is not completely lost. Whereas a complete injury results in a total dis-functioning of the sensory organs. In rarest of cases spinal cord disability can be a birth defect though.
Brain Disability: A disability in the brain occurs due to a brain injury. The magnitude of the brain injury can range from mild, moderate and severe. There are two types of brain injuries: Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). ABI is not a hereditary type defect but is the degeneration that occurs after birth. The causes of such cases of injury are many and are mainly because of external forces applied to the body parts. TBI results in emotional dysfunctioning and behavioral disturbance.
Vision Disibility: There are hundreds of thousands of people that suffer from minor to various serious vision injuries or impairments. These injuries can also result into some serious problems or diseases like blindness and ocular trauma, to name a few. Some of the common vision impairment includes scratched cornea, scratches on the sclera, diabetesw related eye conditions, dry eyes and corneal graft.
Hearing disability: This is the category that includes people that are completely or partially deaf. People who are partially dumb can use hearing-aid to do away with the hearing problem. But the situation is more worse if the deafness is complete.
Cognitive disability: It is a kind of impairment present in people who are suffering from dyslexia and various other learning difficulties. People having dyslexia face difficulties in reading, writing and speaking.
To get more information about disability, disability insurance and disability aids visit http://www.about-disability.com/

Wednesday 5 May 2010

HOME :: Health-and-Fitness / Disability Disability Aids By Rodney Munch

There are thousands of products out there to improve the quality of life for disabled people. These disability aids range from the little things such as doorknob turners, right through to the larger items such as hoists. In this article, I will let you know about some of the more useful disability aids out there.
Stocking Aids
Stocking aids are a very inexpensive disability aid which allow those who struggle to bend or reach the foot put on their own socks or stockings. Stocking aids consist of a shaped flexible plastic gutter with cotton tapes attached. The sock is placed over the gutter, the foot is then put into the gutter and the tapes pull the gutter up the leg and subsequently the sock.
Openers
There are a huge number of openers out there designed to help weak handed people open items such as ketchup bottles or jam jars.
Lifts
Like openers, lifts come in many different varieties suitable for a number of different applications. Lifts are, as you would expect, devices for lifting humans into and out of certain things such as baths, showers, beds and up stairs. There are even lifts for swimming pools if you lucky enough to have one of your own.
Grab Rails
You will no doubt be familiar with grab rails, they are virtually everywhere and are a great asset to anyone who struggles with balance or requires the extra help of their upper body to mobilise themselves. Grab rails are also available to home users at very affordable prices in all variety of shapes, sizes and angles so there will be one to fit your required application. Grab rails do require drilling and screwing to fix them in place.
Euromedical stocks a huge range of disability aids ready for order online with delivery to your door

HOME :: Health-and-Fitness / Home-Health-Care Bracelet Buddy - A Helping Hand Disability Aid By James Lamb Platinum Quality Author

Watches and bracelets, many of us wear them and the fiddly wrestle we go through while attempting to fasten the clasp is maddening. For some people this exercise in dexterity is literally an agonising experience. For sufferers of conditions such as arthritis with stiff or worse, gnarled fingers, even simple everyday tasks most of us take for granted can be frustrating and impossible. While a wristwatch is useful and an attractive bracelet is decorative, to many people suffering a form of physical disability it is next to impossible to actually fasten them on without assistance of another person. However, a little gadget called Bracelet Buddy can be just the arthritis aid answer to this dilemma.
The Bracelet Buddy is a must for bracelet wearers as it eliminates the fumbling struggles associated fastening claps. The slim but beautifully ornate handle-like device is some seven inches long by half an inch in diameter. Almost like a stunning piece of jewellery itself, it is finished in a lustrous gold tone. To use it, the Bracelet Buddy lays along the palm of one hand allowing its patented clip to hold one end of your bracelet. This allows your free hand to wrap it around your wrist and instantly secure it. It doesn't stop there, this handy little helper is also ideal when fastening necklaces and chains too.
Because it is made of light but strong polymer the holding clip will not scratch or damage delicate and valuable jewellery. It is light enough to carry around in a handbag and comes complete with a protective carrying case and full instructions for ease of use.
For not only disability sufferers but indeed anyone Bracelet Buddy works like a helping hand even when on your own.
James Lamb is a Uk writer of fiction and numerous non fiction subjects with a particular interest in health, wealth creation and writing. To discover more about this amazing device visit my specialist webpage at http://hubpages.com/hub/Bracelet-Buddy-The-Helping-Hand-Disability-Aid right away.
James Lamb - EzineArticles Expert Author

Tuesday 4 May 2010

HOME :: Health-and-Fitness / Ears-Hearing RSS Feed XML RSS Feed RSS feeds allow you to be notified whenever brand new articles are released by your favorite authors. Google Yahoo NewsGator Bloglines MSN AOL Nerve Deafness, Why You Do Not Understand What People Say By Gorden McMurry

If you are hard of hearing, one of the most difficult problems which you may experience is comprehension of speech. You may know that someone is speaking to you, but many times, if you have nerve deafness, you miss a lot of the words in the course of the conversation. This is made much worse whenever there is any background noise such as in a crowded room with a lot of people talking in the background. You may notice that you hear better and understand better when you can look directly at the person with whom you are speaking.
What may be even more distressing is when you turn up the radio or TV to try to hear better, it may make matters even worse because the level of distortion becomes worse. You may have noticed that if you have nerve deafness (sensori-neural deafness), you have more trouble with women's voices. This is in to a large extent, due to the fact that women's voices are higher pitched than men's voices. Children's voices represent a similar problem relative to pitch but in addition, they tend to talk rapidly, and are constantly moving about. Also, especially with smaller children, they may not always enunciate clearly since they are just learning language. You may notice that when watching a movie or the TV that if the person speaking is on screen and looking at the camera, that you have better understanding that if the speaker is off screen. With nerve deafness, you may have noticed that in large rooms with poor acoustics, that you have more difficulty.
As a result of all of being hard of hearing, you may find that you would rather stay at home than go out and expose yourself to all of these problems. Also, if you have nerve deafness and trouble understanding speech, your family may be less understanding than strangers. They think that you are not listening or simply ignoring them.
The reason that these problems arise with nerve deafness is related to the fact that there are two parts to our hearing mechanism. One is whether or not we are able to hear the sound while the second and equally important part is, can we process the sound we hear in order to understand what we hear. In mechanical forms of hearing loss (conductive hearing loss), such as occur when you have a hole in your eardrum or wax blocking your ear canal, your ability to understand is normal and if the sound is turned up loud enough, you understand normally. However, with nerve deafness and impairment of comprehension, even when the sound is turned up loud, understanding is not usually improved and may be worse.
An additional problem which is frequently present in people with nerve deafness is the presence of tinnitus, a ringing, roaring, buzzing or similar sound which you perceive in your ears or head but which other people do not hear. This also interferes with hearing and understanding speech.
The cause of nerve deafness is related to the deterioration of the hearing nerve cells. Two common causes are noise exposure and the aging process itself. There are many other causes, but the scope of this article does not permit discussion of any in detail. There may be other associated symptoms such as dizziness.
If you are experiencing some or all of the above problems then you should see your ENT doctor for evaluation, hearing tests and any other needed tests to determine the cause of your difficulty. In some situations, the hard of hearing problem is indicative of more serious conditions in addition to the nerve deafness. Help is available.
Dr. Gorden T McMurry http://www.YourDoctorOnDVD.com is a physician with over 30 years experience in the practice of medicine, seeing and treating patients on a daily basis. Through a series of informational DVD's, The Guides To Healthy Living series, he is providing sound advice to people on health and life style issues to help them control, maintain and improve their health and well being. He developed the series for use in his practice and they were so successful that he decided to significantly expand the list of available titles and make them available to the public at large. You can contact Dr. McMurry at gorden@yourdoctorondvd.com

HOME :: Home-Improvement / Security Fire Alarms For the Deaf By Christopher W Smith Platinum Quality Author

Living with deafness creates a world in which you are isolated from those around you just because you cannot hear what they're hearing. Going through life this way can be especially challenging. You have to come up with ways to compensate for everything you're missing. When someone knocks at your door, you can't hear it.
If the phone rings, you never know. A person who's deaf living in a hearing world can find a lot that's frightening and frustrating. One way to make your world a little safer and less frightening is by installing a fire alarm for the deaf.
The Deaf Need Fire Protection, Too
If you have a deaf person living in your home or know one who comes to visit often, you really should install deaf fire alarms to help provide for their safety. Even if you're just installing it for the one person, isn't that person important enough to elicit your care? You need to install an alarm unit in the room where the person sleeps in addition to rooms in which he spends time during his waking hours.
People who are deaf need adaptive technology in order to make sense of their world. Since a deaf person can't hear a regular fire alarm, he needs one that is specially-designed to meet his needs. You've got to realize that he is basically alone in his little world and feels isolated and vulnerable. We need to do everything we can to make his life a little easier as well as more secure. How would you like being home alone and knowing that if a fire started you'd have no way of being alerted in order to get out safely?
The Way Deaf Fire Alarms Work
A system which uses strobe lights is the best you can buy for a person who is deaf. Once a fire is detected and the lights begin flashing, it will be impossible for anyone to ignore them. The lights are bright enough to wake the deaf person when he is sleeping, and they won't take "no" for an answer as they remind him over and over as they flash their warning to get out of the building immediately.
By giving that deaf person you know the gift of safety and security, you'll be showing him just how much you do care about him. He will appreciate your little gift of love, and you'll feel good about it, too.
Keep your family safe by buying the right fire alarm for your home. Visit FireAlarmsAdvisor.com for more tips on fire alarms including fire alarms for the deaf [http://www.firealarmsadvisor.com/fire-alarms-for-the-hearing-impaired/alarm-fire-light-safety-for-the-deaf/] and residential fire alarm box [http://www.firealarmsadvisor.com/fire-alarm-info/the-importance-of-a-residential-fire-alarm-box/] - keep your family safe.