“Brilliant Tetra project can save lives”
VANCOUVER: A Tetra project could increase road safety for every man, woman and child using a wheelchair.
“TetraLites” tackle a particular vulnerability faced by anyone in a wheelchair: being lower than other pedestrians, motorists tend not to notice wheelchairs at intersections.
The design features three rows of 15 LED lights, in Plexiglas tubes, which mount to the sides and rear of a wheelchair or can be set vertically like a flagpole. They draw a negligible amount from powerchair batteries, or can be connected to rechargeable batteries for use on a manual chair.
The brilliant idea came from volunteer Brian Johnson, following a conversation with 31-year-old Eric Molendyk, a Tetra employee in Vancouver, who was struck by a car at an intersection on his way to work in November 2008.
“The next thing I know is I’m on the ground and disorientated.”
“It was raining but not pouring, and the sun was already up, so there were no visibility problems,” he said. “I was wearing a poncho with a yellow reflective strip across the chest and had reflective panels on my chair.”
“The problem is drivers are trying to use the crossing to make their turn. They are watching the oncoming traffic more than the crossing.”
He remembers pushing the button and waiting for the walk sign, then observing there were no other pedestrians in the crosswalk— but not the car hitting him.
“The next thing I know is I’m on the ground and disorientated. I had searing pain in my left knee, and was sure I had busted my leg. I was not aware of where my chair was. I remember someone saying my head was bleeding.”
He spent the rest of the day in hospital receiving stitches and being X-rayed, processes that required multiple transfers. ” When you have cerebral palsy, when you are in pain or stressed, your muscles get tighter, and that was creating more pain in my knee. They were concerned because I don’t walk, my legs don’t have the same bone density.”
Although there were no broken bones, Molendyk still suffers swelling and circulation problems in his left foot. It turned out that he had been struck by a couple driving a Mercedes. The tearful driver subsequently told Molendyk she just hadn’t seen him.
Johnson said the lights can be attached to the sides of a wheelchair or in the form of a vertical flagpole, can produce the whole colour spectrum, and be set to strobe. “I’ve not spoken to a wheelchair user who doesn’t want them. They can save a life.”
The lights are bright enough to let someone see their way out of a pitch black room but make no noticeable impact on the wheelchair’s battery life, said Johnson. “I think everyone should have these lights on their chair. If it makes a motorist slow down for just one second, they can save a life.”
SEARCH OUR CATALOGUE OF UNIQUE INVENTIONS
Anyone coming to the Tetra Society website can now search a database of more than 875 inspirational assistive devices.
These projects highlight the ingenuity of Tetra volunteers who devise custom devices to overcome challenges faced by people with disabilities. They also show clients and health professionals what is possible and enable volunteers to share technical details.
Like searching for an item on eBay or Amazon, a user can browse through a large field of projects or pinpoint a specific area.
It doesn’t show everything Tetra has achieved over the years–an estimated 5,000 projects–but it is a strong sampling that will continue to grow.
“I am constantly amazed by the ingenuity of our volunteers,” said Tetra’s national program coordinator Pat Tweedie. “Tetra volunteers can devise items that put a whole range of daily activities within reach.”
“The website is an amazing source of ideas,” she said. “Every single one is a success story
These projects change lives.
VANCOUVER: It’s all too easy to focus on the ingenuity of Tetra devices and overlook the difference they make to people’s lives.
Heather McCain, 31, of Vancouver uses three life changing Tetra projects to come to terms with her disability and mitigate the constant pain she endures. She has six different types of arthritis, stemming from damage to her joints caused by a rare genetic condition, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. Her joints are hypermobile. As she puts it, “if I turn a door handle, my wrist can go all the way around.” McCain had been unaware of this growing up – even though it had been written on her medical record at some point. Had someone thought to tell her, she could have worn splints and tried to minimize the damage she was doing to her body.
The arthritis began at age 17, and over the next few years she went from extreme sports to life in a wheelchair and into depression. All of which McCain, Buddhist since 18, comes to terms with through meditation and mindfulness, a calm awareness of internal and external events.
“My lifestyle came to a crashing halt,” she said. “I was not a person that could sit still for a second. With meditation I was able to find stillness in myself.”
Western medicine is gradually becoming attuned to the health benefits of meditation, no matter what spiritual or secular tradition it comes under, and McCain thinks everyone with a disability can use the practice to come to terms with the obstacles they face.
Fittingly, her first Tetra project was a meditation bench, completed 2007. It was sized to allow easy transfers and designed to provide leg and foot support, without which McCain would further damage her knees and lose circulation in her feet.
She could have stayed put in her wheelchair at meditation class, but observed “you’re used to the noises of your own wheelchair, but it’s not until you are in a quiet room that you are aware of how noisy it is, and I didn’t want to disturb people.”
When not in use, the bench becomes an easy-to-reach place to feed her cat.
McCain’s second project, completed 2008, was the creation of splints attached to her wheelchair to provide support to her lower legs, preventing her knee joints from twisting backwards.
“It’s a simple project, but it’s made the biggest difference. It had been so painful before, every day, but now with these shin splints in place, supporting my legs, I don’t have to think about it.”
Later in 2008, volunteers created a wheelchair lap tray with a difference. While most lap trays hold items such as food, drinks and books, this design is purely to let McCain rest her arms, reducing strain on her shoulders.
“Because of the osteoarthritis in my collar-bones, I have to support my arms or else they become too painful to use. The wheelchair armrests are designed to rest your elbows on from time to time. No one sits with their arms that wide apart.”
Before the tray was created, McCain’s arms would frequently become so painful she had headrest switches installed in her chair as an alternate means of steering it. The tray can fold neatly out of the way for ease of trans-fers, but it is easily reachable and presents no danger of dragging on the floor when McCain is “using her wheelchair as an ATV.”
McCain has nothing but praise for the Tetra volunteers, saying: “They are there to help you. So is the medical field, but they are more interested in what you have and tend not to see you as a person. Tetra volunteers are interested in more than just the project.”
McCain operates her own non-profit, Citizens for Accessible Neighbourhoods, which gives information about services and opportunities for people with disabilities. Visit the site at www.canbc.org.