Lanyard

You've already seen this lanyard in my post regarding door bumpers to assist in pressing remote buttons. These little well tied loops of rope or cord can be so helpful in so many other ways. Keeping keys attached to something easy to grab a hold of, and easy on the teeth for those times you need to hold on to them with your mouth, is a big deal because the alternative is dropping them. For many quadriplegics, or any wheelchair users for that matter, picking things off the floor can be very difficult. Especially if you already have something on your lap or are in the middle of a snow-covered parking lot.

A lanyard can be homemade, bought cheaply from any discount store, and be almost any length you need to fit your intended purpose. As attractive as the Solomon bar weave is on the upper part of this lanyard, it is the diamond knot that I am most grateful to be able to tie successfully. That knot makes for not just a loop to hold onto but a nicely sized ball of cord to incorporate into a zipper pull, making the challenge of operating a zipper a little bit easier. Here are my thoughts on zippers. While the white part of the cord is illuminated by a camera flash, the green part is because of the glow-in-the-dark material used to make this lanyard. It's a little more expensive than standard paracord but for those times I wanted to be able to find my keys in the dark I'm glad I chose it for this keychain.

The reason I like paracord so much is that when used to secure keys, as shown in the door bumpers post linked to above, is that it is quite easy to detach the keys for those times when you need to separate your vehicle keys from your house keys, such as when leaving a vehicle for service. I prefer this over the quick clasp lanyards that you can purchase in stores because often those clasps are spring-loaded and pivot which makes operating them very difficult, and a danger to a person's lip should you choose to use your teeth and have the clasp snap shut.

In the future we will take a look at other lanyards of the smaller size used to keep smooth and difficult cell phones closer to us and less likely to be dropped on the floor if they slip out of our hands. Because I did not want to be tied down by a lanyard hanging off my phone I chose a very rubbery case and the larger design of the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 for my current phone, which I talk about in the post regarding touch screens and styluses.

Source: Webbed lanyards - Department or DollarStores
Paracord and Premade Paracord Lanyards - EBay and Etsy

Door Bumpers

My original use for these door or drawer bumpers was on the remote starter of my previous vehicle. That remote is not pictured here but it was similar to the right most remote in the photo above. The problem with the previous remote was that it had recessed buttons. The buttons themselves were not the problem. It was that with only four buttons on that old remote one was dedicated to locking, one to unlocking, one to opening the door and lowering the ramp and one to the lifting the ramp and closing the door.. The only way the installers could program the module to start the van was by pressing the lock and unlock keys simultaneously. Because they were recessed this presented a problem for me.

It wasn't that I couldn't do it but I required a surface to set the remote on while I pressed each button with my two thumbs. When I had something on my lap, or no firm surface to rest the remote on, it was difficult. And, when do you need automatic vehicle starting the most? In the winter when it's cold and you don't want to be fumbling with a remote longer than necessary. Self-adhesive door bumpers cut to fit each button was my solution.

It worked but was not ideal because making the buttons that much easier to press made for accidentally unlocking or locking the doors and only once accidentally starting the van. This was also before the time of two-way communication between the vehicle and the remote -- you  now receive notification that your vehicle has started -- so it wasn't until an undetermined amount of time that I realized the van had been started.

Thankfully the buttons on my current remote, pictured left, have just the right amount of tactile resistance and are raised only slightly, requiring a one second press before activating the function. All buttons function as indicated by their symbols but two consecutive presses of the unlock button, with a two second pause between, opens my door and lowers the ramp or picks up the ramp and closes the door. This is a much more convenient way than depending on the door bumpers but they did work when I needed them to.

Source: Department, hardware, and dollar stores.