A long time ago, I decided to start up a series. I lacked a catchy title, so I went with the mere truth: Things That Make My Life Easier.

What I meant by that is, of course, things that make my life with a disability easier.

Disability can introduce certain complications to a life — meaning that in reaching the same destination, a disabled person may have a bumpier, windier, more obstructed path than a nondisabled person. A disabled person may simply have more to deal with than hir nondisabled counterpart. And this is not inherent to hir condition: much of that difficulty, that obstruction, is constructed by a society that is built to suit a nondisabled person’s needs, concerns, and preferences. Some of it, to be sure, is difficulty that will never be eliminated, no matter the social context.

This means two things, things that are not at all contradictory but, in fact, must both be recognized for us to make any progress:

One, that disabled people face a great deal of difficulty that is ultimately the result of a society that cares more about the convenience of the comfortable than the comfort of the inconvenient;

And two, that disabled people may always face some amount more difficulty than their nondisabled peers due to the intrinsic nature of neurological and physiological variation.

Disability is an experience all its own. But at the same time, disability is not particularly [anything]. Disabled people are experiencing the same thing nondisabled people are, by the by: they are experiencing pleasure and experiencing pain; they are experiencing acceptance and experiencing rejection; they are experiencing stability and experiencing change. They are learning and expanding; they are teaching and demonstrating. They need food and drink, and the opportunity to get rid of bodily waste. They need shelter from the elements, a comfortable place to sit or lie. They need transport if they are mobile; they need a way to enter buildings; they need an effective method of communication with other people. They need social interaction; they need solitary time. They need intellectual stimulation; they need leisure and entertainment.

These are all things that nondisabled people need, too. They are not “special” needs. They are human needs. A core set of needs that we all share.

But these needs are not all met in the same ways.

This is the beauty of humanity, really: presented with a particular need, a set of people will take all manner of approaches, using all sorts of different resources available, finding all kinds of different ways to use them — different paths to the same end point. All paths take a toll on their travelers, while offering to those travelers certain advantages. It is up to the individual to weigh the costs and benefits of any specific way sie might take.

There is no moral weight to one path over another. That it harm none, do what you will. Whatever you are doing, so long as you harm no one else, it is good. Or, put another way: Whatever you are doing, however you are doing it, if it gets done, who the hell cares beyond that?

Next: A Reintroduction (Part 2 of 3)

Cross-posted: three rivers fog, FWD/Forward, Feministe.

This is for my blog-sisters who use wheelchairs, power chairs and other mobility aids.

hodgepodgeia is a seller who makes, among other things, “saddle bags,” chair caddies, bed caddies and walker bags:

Smartie Pak, Jr.

Image description: An over-the-arm bag for armed chairs, with a zipper pouch and several pockets.

Easy Reach Scooter Pak

Image description: A bag that hangs over both sides of the seat on a scooter or powerchair, with various pockets and pouches for storage

Walker Bag

Image description: A bag that hangs over the front handle of a walker, with a pouch on both the front and back side with various pockets inside for storage

The seller appears to be open to custom orders — if you prefer a specific fabric or color scheme, or other reasonable changes.

This is what is so wonderful about Etsy: you find people making quite innovative products, often costing less than you would pay even at the cheapest brick-and-mortar store, and most of them are open to working with you to produce a custom product for your specific needs or preferences. You can reference their current items and former sales (linked on the right-hand column of their storefront: X items for sale, Y items sold) for the types of materials and fabric patterns they have used, as well as styles of product they are capable of making, when figuring out what sort of modifications to ask for.

Further searching produce a variety of products including padded seats, pocket scarves, more walker bags (of various styles from various sellers) and a range of other items.

All it takes to buy from Etsy is a free account, which also allows you to message sellers with questions about their items or inquiries about the possibility of customizing. And if you make anything and would like to sell it, Etsy provides a very nice platform for selling your handmade items with what appears to be a very reasonable fee schedule (around 20 US cents per listing, all listings created equal). There is a huge variety of items available on the site — up to and including baked goods, teas and houseplants! — and it’s a nice little community.

See also: my last post on Etsy items for people with disabilities/chronic illness.