Suggestions

Permission for Use

Assistive Devices

More Assistive Devices

Joyce returned to the Roberts' farm on another visit, along with Joan Crosby who will be doing a clinical in the area soon. On this trip, they learn how Susan is adapting her home and lifestyle to adjust to the physical changes caused by post-polio syndrome.

Susan shows them the "green machine," a John Deere 5-wheeler, that allows her to travel around the 57-acre farm to her garden and up the hill to the old 1850's farm house they restored.

The original log beams and inner stone walls with grass growing in the cracks still show but so does Susan's knowledge of accessibility. Ramps, levers on door handles, and safety features in the bathroom will make life easier for Susan and her guests. Stair chairs carry her to the second floor guest rooms and down to the basement where she weaves on a floor loom.

Her husband, David, takes her ideas and finds a way to construct them. Some simple things, like the hot-dog roasting stick reacher her son made for the fireplace, have dual functions. Susan uses it to retrieve baskets from where they hang in the kitchen. A basket and a shoulder bag allow her to carry objects using her trunk and arm while keeping one had free to use her cane.

"It is evident that Susan is dedicated to the welfare of children and the field of occupational therapy," Joyce observes. Susan's own experience of living with disability from a young age has heightened her sensitivity towards the needs of others with disabilities. She has just returned from three days at the Governor's 2nd Annual Missouri Conference on Disability Rights and is wearing a button that says: "I have a disability and I vote."

She is not shy about questioning the student's use of the term "confined to a wheelchair." "Do you know anyone who has to sleep in her wheelchair?" she asks playfully. She explains how her wheeled scooter saves her energy and frees her rather than confines her.