Member of the Northern Polio Association
Miyuki Kobayashi

I developed polio at the age of 7 months. At the time, I was told by my doctor that I would soon pass away due to respiratory difficulties and total paralysis. By the time I entered elementary school, however, I had recovered enough to walk with an assistive device on one leg and attend a special needs school.

Around the age of 40, I suddenly became unable to walk. Initially, I thought it was just a sign of aging, but after being examined at the hospital, I was diagnosed with post-polio syndrome. Currently, I live in a wheelchair with an assistive device. When cooking or hanging laundry, I work standing up.

My husband also uses a wheelchair, so we have made adjustments around the house to make the environment wheelchair friendly. It has become second nature to find ways of adapting to our surroundings and has become a normal part of our lives. I would like to share some of the strategies we use.

We are wheelchair-bound, so we can’t reach things that are on the floor or up in high and distant places. In such situations, tools like the Grabber and Reacher come in handy. We use these tools with various shapes for different purposes.

The Grabber has its limitations in terms of what it can grip. It can't be used for larger or more complex objects. It's useful for grabbing clothes and fabric or putting laundry into the washing machine without causing much damage.

The key-shaped end of the Reacher is useful for placing hangers in high places or pulling items closer. The opposite end with a rubber tip attached to it is used for pressing switches that are far away. This is especially convenient for switches in the bathroom, which are usually out of our reach. Additionally, we replaced the tassels on our curtains with curtain holders, allowing us to hang curtains using the Grabber and Reacher.

For smaller items such as coins and paper clips, we use a Pocket Reacher, which has a gel-like adhesive tip.

We use the key-shaped end of the Reacher and the rubber end on the opposite side according to their respective purposes.

In addition to the Graber and Reacher, we also make use of tongs. Tongs are helpful for grabbing larger or delicate items. We use them when placing dishes on shelves, for example. To enhance grip, we attached a rubber stopper to the tips of the tongs since they tend to be slippery.
We firmly grip dishes using tongs.

The Grabber, Reacher, and tongs are useful in various situations, so we keep them all over the house.

We want to live as comfortably as possible with these small innovations. However, the time we'd least want to make a mistake is during home construction or renovation. In such times, I highly recommend referring to Post-Polio Doesn't Have to Be Scary which was published by the National Polio Association for guidance. It contains numerous creative ideas from members across the country.
For smaller items, we use a Pocket Reacher.