Lift - Residential Exterior Residential - Electric Winch

The beauty of a winter wonderland. That is, until you are stuck outside waiting for a lift to raise you to the level you need to get into the warm house or lower you to the ground to get into a pre-warmed vehicle. Obviously, this issue is not exclusive to quadriplegics but we certainly are some of the most temperature-sensitive individuals.

The lift pictured above was purchased and installed after the slow-moving bureaucratic red tape was slashed through. Until then the relic my dad had purchased from the Abilities Council was in place as a solution until this modern lift was installed. It was then that the relic was moved out to their cabin. This lift, installed in 1998, has been a very reliable and trouble-free system for me. It's not without its imperfections but it has never let me down.

The vertical tracks, that the lift supports raise and lower between, have whiskers that keep a lot of debris out of that vertical tower which probably contributes to it functioning so well for so long. Above the controls is a stainless steel flap on hinges installed by my dad to keep the elements away from those buttons and the on/off key. Once he installed the flap we were replacing the protective plastic covers on the buttons far less frequently. The automatic stopping position for both the top and bottom have been nice, as opposed to the estimating and soft stopping point of the old Abilities Council lift. And, though it does not need to travel too far, it is not painfully slow.

My biggest complaint would be that, because of the pressure switch beneath the lift, designed to prevent anyone or anything from being crushed beneath it just like the lift inside this house, this lift does not go as flat to the ground as I would like. Because of this the ramp, though short, is quite steep. On this driveway there is adequate room to take a good run at it but that bump when you hit the ramp is not ideal when you have a something on your lap. Conversely, coming down is a pretty good bump. You will want to lean back to prevent any loss of balance or digging in of the front tires. This steep ramp could be remedied by having it descend from its protective position onto an additional small platform and ramp which would make the entire thing more gradual. However, I have an issue with the idea of mixing ramps and lifts. There is no good reason to it other than why would you want to have to fool around with both? Either build a proper ramp or have a proper lift.

Source: Home adaptation and modification businesses. Unlike the very complicated internal home lift installation, this could probably be done by someone with a degree of mechanical competence.

Lift - House Interior - Battery Hydraulic

The lift in my parents' home is the first that was installed on my behalf. It has been a reliable, safety certified, overpriced solution to allow me access to the basement. It is a very slow moving hydraulic, DC powered, mechanism that provides the lift or descent. The DC power comes from a battery that is constantly being charged by AC and is supposed to be the backup to a power outage. I've never needed to test the backup but I'm doubtful that a seventeen year old battery would have the capacity to complete a cycle, if necessary.

The door locks shut as soon as the lift is activated, but that won't happen until the tediously slow gas shock lets the door creep closed. Once you reach your destination that shock makes a very inconvenient resistance when opening the door. Add to that the significant lip the user needs to descend or climb when exiting or entering while the lift is in the basement and it's not exactly smooth to use. The lip would be non-existent if the lift descended into a recess, which would make room for the pressure-sensitive plate which prevents the crushing of anything that might be underneath. Safety first, I suppose, though I've come crashing out of there on an angle when the door caught my chair because of the safety of the gas shock. Not much hope of carrying anything on my lap with that thing. My current lift has no such safeties. We'll look at it in the near future.

You can likely determine from my tone that I'm not fond of this lift. Safety is important, but almost everything takes longer in our disabled lives. Does getting downstairs have to take the 78 seconds I've timed it at? My current lift is plenty safe and takes me 17 seconds. These times include time taken to enter the lift. My biggest complaint comes not from inconvenience, but from well being. Not a safety concern but a sanity concern. That and the difficulty of transporting anything in addition to the user.

As the thin metal panels that enclose the wall-mounted tracks and the carriage expand or contract with the temperature change in the house between every furnace or air conditioner cycle they snap, crackle and pop, loudly, right above my wife's and my head, as we try to sleep. This drives us nuts.

I do not know what other safety certified lift options are available but I recommend seeking them out. If a lift of this style is your only option have it installed in a closet or away from places you need quiet.

Source: Home adaptation and modification businesses.

Lifts - Abilities Council Relic

My work here hasn't ended and my ideas have certainly not dried up. We've just been so happily enthralled with our wonderfully changed life and rapidly growing daughter. Now that we have some routine and rhythm back in our lives, and the busyness of the summer has passed for another year, I'm ready to resume work on Challenging Reality. If you are still with me, still checking for regular updates, thank you! If that's you please spread the word to anyone else you know has been visiting that I will be back with new photos, technology and updates. It may not be the 7 AM Monday morning every week posting that it was before but I won't leave you hanging as long as I did this last phase.

This was the first lift I ever owned. While waiting for the tedious bureaucratic process of planning and approval of renovations to make a home barrier free, in this case my parents' house which I returned to after my stay in rehab, my father decided he wasn't going to wait any longer. Seeing the lift pictured above for sale he purchased it to be temporarily installed at the front door of their home until a proper, modern lift would be approved and installed by insurance. Once that was done this one was handed down to make my access to their cabin virtually effortless.

So, why highlight such an archaic lift that you probably would have trouble finding today? Simply to prove the point that these lifts, which were so abundantly distributed by the Saskatchewan Abilities Council to anyone needing a lift to access their home due to a disability, may not be the most attractive but they are rocksolid reliable. They have their downfalls including having a significant portion of them made from plywood that will rot over time, not having the greatest weather sealing which means the cables inside may need replacing, they are very slow moving and they do not have a set stopping point.

Their operation is a bit finicky including that the lever to activate the lift moves in two directions, one moving the lift up and the other moving the lift down but if you should release the lever and switch to the other direction before the lift comes to a dead stop the platform will continue moving the same direction it was going. This may be a built-in safeguard to prevent any jerking or unnecessary pressure on the cables should the lift be accidentally jammed into the wrong direction. Not having a set stopping point, it's easy enough to determine when to let go of the lever once you have reached the ground but when being elevated to your higher destination the user has to make the decision when to release the lever, taking into account that it will continue to coast for an additional few centimeters, or so.

The safeguards to prevent a user from falling off are entirely manual. The hinged ramp folds up and hooks onto an eyebolt to prevent the user from rolling off. Of course, this is entirely optional and I don't know if I have used it more than a dozen times in 17 years. The lift move slow enough as it is I'm not willing to spend the additional time necessary to lift that gate. I've never fallen off. Ironically, right in front of the bench in the photo is where I fell out of my chair one time due to it being a wheelchair I was not accustomed to and a dip in the ground. It had nothing to do with the lift as it was at the front of the cabin at that time. I used the opportunity to play in the grass with my dog for awhile before getting help to get back into my chair.

So simple and reliable are the mechanisms for this lift that I have seen one converted to transport a user from the main floor of the house to the basement and back up. It required its own support system, much larger than the triangular vertical support that the lift was designed with, but the motors, gears and cables worked very well to safely get a person between floors without concern.

I understand the closed operating system of modern lifts and how the safety is not a bad thing. Sometimes, though, it's nice for someone who is skilled at adapting or modifying things to be able to take a solid piece of technology, like this lift, and tweak it to be well suited to function in a way or location other than originally intended.

If there is anything that Challenging Reality has shown, and this man has learned, it's that often the best solutions are not something you can find mass-produced.

Source: No longer made. Available used from adaptive equipment sellers' classifieds sources such as abilities council or Canadian Paraplegic Association. I would recommend a new lift for intended purposes or one made from scratch for custom purposes.

Bath Seat

The bath seat pictured here is not the standard removable seat that is just placed in the tub for use when needed. It was built right into the house with the intention that I would be able to use it to gently lower myself into the tub and lift myself out to dry off and get dressed on. This never happened. To this day I do not think I would be strong enough to use it and it was soon supplemented with a hydro-powered bath lift. Unfortunately, the difficulty transferring unclothed, combined with the rubberized shelf liner-style rubber material covering the lift to prevent slippage, did just that. It was too difficult to transfer from my chair to the bath lift without causing damage to my skin.

The two times I did use it I greatly enjoyed being mostly immersed in water and enjoying the benefits of the water jets on my body. But, after being that relaxed and the heat tiring me the transfer out was very difficult and negated almost all benefits of using a tub. I know this is not the case for many stronger quadriplegics and many paraplegics, but for me showering is quicker, easier and my bathing method of choice. I reserve my full immersion in water for hot summer days at the lake or nice hot pools, such as the Temple Gardens Mineral Spa in Moose Jaw.

A less costly and less permanent option for anyone wishing to try using a bathtub might be the removable bath seat that actually sits in and over the edge of the tub. It's more secure than the smallest standard bath seat you might see but both of them still don't allow you to get much more than your legs wet. I realize that they could also be used as a seat for showering but I am grateful to have had a roll in shower over the years.

As much as this bath seat did not work for me to assist with bathing, next week I will show you the Krulick's Soap Grippers that were completely useless to me.

Source: The built-in bath seat was included in the renovation. Portable, removable tub seats are available from most adaptive equipment supply stores or discuss with an occupational therapist what would be best for you. They may even have some available for you to try some before buying.