Sitting Disabilities
Jan. 25th, 2023 03:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithWhile searching for something else, I stumbled across this interesting site about sitting disabilities. Since I have many readers with a wide range of mind/body issues, I figured these resources might prove helpful to share around.
Sitting disabilities include a wide range of limitations from being unable to sit comfortably or safely more than briefly, being unable to tolerate hard unpadded seats, being unable to use seats that lack a back and/or arms, exceeding the allotted weight limit of seats, being able to bend their hips but not their knees and thus unable to fit into many seating types, being able to sit only in a reclined position but not fully upright, being unable to breathe or stay conscious unless fully flat, to being physically unable to bend the hips/back into a chair shape at all. It's all the stuff that makes standard seating difficult or impossible to use. Anything less than an hour of sit time will make life difficult, but it gets worse if the limit is 15 minutes or less than 5. Local-America does not deem these individuals worthy of traveling or entering public space at all, there is little or no accommodation for their needs, and many places have made it outright illegal for them to leave their homes.
Closely related, some people find it painful or impossible to sit for a time due to temporary health conditions. Childbirth is probably one of the most common, but any kind of surgery or injury to the area between lower belly and knees can have similar effects. Some illnesses also make sitting very uncomfortable if parts are sensitive. New body jewelry down there may do it too. So accommodations for people with permanent sitting disabilities also help people with temporary limitations. For these cases, the number-one cheap fix you can fit into most first aid kits or comfort kits is an inflatable, disposable donut cushion; with a bigger budget, a memory foam or gel cushion may extend the time someone can sit before they have to get up.
I will add a slightly different subset of challenges: people like me whose bodies can take many positions, but cannot remain in the same position -- any position! -- for very long. At the moment I am sitting cross-legged in my office chair. Sometimes I have one knee up, or both feet on the floor in the "usual" position, or stretched out semi-reclining. As long as I can move around every 10-15 minutes, I'm fine, but I do need equipment that permits me to shift positions. Thus, the kind of accommodations that are good for nonsitters are also helpful to me, and the kind of abuses that are bothersome to them are often bothersome to me too. And the group of people who can sit some but not more than a medium time or who need to shift positions is probably a lot bigger than the group who can't sit at all, so this is a larger issue than it might seem at first glance.
An interesting customer magnet in areas of heavy foot traffic: anti-fatigue mats and foam floor covers. I was browsing a vendor barn with a concrete floor, and did not realize how much my feet hurt until I stepped into the heavily padded Tupperware booth and they stopped hurting. So I browsed heavily to give my feet a break, and found things to buy. While essential for standers, these are appealing to everyone. There is no reason that the built environment should be uncomfortable and people expected to put up with unnecessary misery.
Since I have many readers with a wide range of mind/body issues, I figured these resources might prove helpful to share around.
Some useful sections from the site:
* My Symptoms
Everyone's issues are different. It can be helpful to make a list.
* Things I’ve Tried, Things I Haven’t
When you have a problem, use the engineer problem solving method. First take a baseline. Define the problem as precisely as possible. Then attempt different solutions, and keep track of what works or doesn't. Things that don't work for you may work for someone else, and vice versa, so these records are very handy in the disability community.
* Getting Around
L-America classifies transportation as a paid privilege, not a right. This means some people are imprisoned at home, if they are fortunate enough to have a home. It also fits with life being a paid privilege, not a right. Because if you can't travel, you can't access most services including health care. Since caregivers no longer make housecalls, health care is only for people who can travel. Which is evil.
* My Workstation
How I actually found this site was looking for ergonomic office equipment, which led me me to alternative workstations such as computer beds. A sleeping desk is a very versatile, often affordable option that can work in many different positions from upright to flat. LAN racking systems are like adult-sized erector sets for building computer stations in any configuration using mounting hardware, desktops, shelves, cabinets, etc. There are also actual erector set furniture kits for children and adults, with which you can build almost anything. Any kind of modular furniture makes it easier to assemble adaptive workspace. Interactive workstations for imaging are also highly adjustable. These are billed as "gaming" desks and beds, but they offer many ergonomic options including supine, reclining, sitting, standing, treadmill, and even cycling. Zero-gravity stations range from small and simple to big and complex, depending on user need. They are expensive, but if you are going to spend your life in that chair or bed, they are worth the investment for those who can afford them. People who can't sit often need alternative keyboards or mice too, suitable for using in other positions. It helps that many of these things look classy instead of that ugly clinical crap so often fobbed off on people here.
Here, such things are rarely covered by insurance; most people find it more feasible to do without or buy their own than attempt to extract resources from hostile forces. Meanwhile over in Terramagne, this category of adaptive equipment is an everyday part of office stores as well as home health equipment stores, and it is either covered outright or subsidized so it doesn't cost more than average office equipment. One of the things that occupational therapists do in attempt to cheer up distraught clients is offer them a catalog of all the cool things which might make life easier, and which are readily available there. It doesn't make the problem go away, but the right equipment makes the situation suck a lot less and can greatly reduce the impact on what people can still do.
* Sleeping
Many disabilities disrupt sleep in various ways. There are numerous tools and techniques that help people sleep better, from sleep chairs (some of which go from fully upright to fully flat) to obscure practices like yoga nidra.
* Health Consequences
Limited mobility screws up your health in many ways. Among those is that if you have only one or a few positions you can be in, it throws more stress onto certain parts of your body. If you can't sit, you are likely to develop neck, back, arm, leg, and/or foot problems based on overuse of some other position. Ergonomic equipment and exercise can help reduce these issues for some people. Also, the "sitting is bad for you" trend can be very distressing to people who can't sit, so you may want to avoid that topic around them.
* Legal Recognition
Here there is little or no protection. While the ADA technically covers sitting disabilities, there is rarely any accommodation for them in practice. T-America does a much better job of protecting people's right to travel, access services, be in public, survive, and exist regardless of their abilities or disabilities.
* Wish List
Here is a description of what it would look like if society accommodated the needs of people who can't sit, with attention to many different areas of public space and life activities. Awareness is easily promoted just by boosting the signal. Much of the stuff is beyond ordinary reach, but some is available to anyone. Does your workplace have chairs, desks, tables, counters, etc.? Make sure there is a bench or couch where someone could lie down, and an adjustable desktop or table that goes from sitting to standing height. A leaning rail is easy to install and takes up little or no floorspace. Companies or other organizations should have a first aid corner or room (depending on size) with a private area for lying down. Some places have a separate quiet room or nap room with loungers or cots. At events, make sure you include standing space and benches or chairs where folks can sit with legs extended. Provide anti-fatigue mats for all standing stations.
This really got me thinking about Terramagne. I've been seeing bits and pieces of this for years over there. Examples include:
* There are benches just everywhere, and most of them don't have interior armrests. Along the sidewalk, throughout parks, just outside and just inside most doors, there are places to sit or lie down.
* Most bus stops have shelters, and most of those include either benches or mixed seating such as benches, chairs, and leaning rails.
* Buses typically have a docking area for wheelchairs, or more rarely, travel beds. Some use this place for standers, other have a separate space for them with floor padding, and grab bars or straps. Mass transit is discounted or free for people with disabilities.
* Almost every van has a flat option. Some have chairs that recline flat, others have narrow benches, some have a bench seat that opens into a bed. Frequently the floor has docking rails to hold seats, benches, cargo bins, etc. in diverse configurations. With rails, you can also dock a wheelchair (including a zero-g or reclining one) or the kind of gurney that goes in the back of an ambulance. There are also integrated cargo nets and/or snaffles to attach whatever kind you want, so you can lie down and still have seatbelt-type security. I would bet that most cars, where the design allows, also have at least one seat that reclines flat or near-flat.
* A great many apartment buildings, community centers, malls, police departments, churches, and other organizations have their own transport. That can be one vehicle or a whole motor pool. They usually have a lift and space for various accommodations in addition to standard seats. A large organization may have a dedicated van or bus for disabled members, and it's a lot easier to fit a travel bed that way than cramming it in the back of a mixed-use vehicle. In particular, health care providers typically have a fleet of different vehicles, including some with lifts and/or travel beds, for transporting clients who can't easily get there and back again by themselves. This takes some weight off the mass-transit system and makes it easier for people to socialize and access services.
* Paratransit is obligated to move people in a prompt and polite manner, with whatever accommodations necessary including flat travel, for free. Towns often augment the official service with charities or support circles that provide travel assistance too.
* Airplanes are required to accommodate disabilities. The little private ones don't always have room for all options, but the big public planes have to provide at least a few seats that lie flat and a docking area for wheelchairs and travel beds. They are not allowed to charge extra; the cost is the average ticket price. If they only offer accessible space in one part of the plane, they have to upgrade or discount the ticket accordingly. Angel Wings is an air travel charity that provides compassionate travel for free to people with disabilities, so they can do things like attend weddings, funerals, and other family events.
* Diverse bicycles are much more common and affordable, including various types of recumbent bicycles or tricycles with a reclining position, and supine or prone tricycles that are close to flat
* Dotties are genderfree bathrooms, often with a shower, sometimes a dressing bench, and widely available. Family bathrooms are common in large buildings such as malls and have a suite of rooms such as a nursing lounge, quiet room, and dottie cubicles. It's much more common there than here to have an adult changing table, a hoist, and/or other accessibility features.
* Quiet rooms are about as common as family-style bathrooms. Nap rooms are slightly less common. If someone needs a place to lie down, there are places that pretty predictably offer that, such as malls or other large public buildings.
* Restaurants and other public places typically have a range of accommodating furniture. Here all you usually see are high chairs and booster seats. T-America often adds adjustable tables or desks, chairs, lap trays, stepstools, and so on. Having an accommodations closet with a bunch of useful equipment just makes life easier for staff and customers alike. Bar None is a restaurant chain for people with sitting disabilities.
* Hostile architecture exists but is much less common, chiefly due to legal risks. The same is true of hostile legislature. People still do dumb shit sometimes, but they are much more likely to get challenged and lose. It is easy to point out the obvious harm of things like not having benches or making it illegal to lie down in public, in case someone gets dizzy or has a heart attack, in addition to making public space generally inaccessible for many people with disabilities.
* Some medics still make house calls. There are community paramedics and community nurses, and home care is among the options for field doctors. Some only work with disabled clients. Others work with anyone, because they feel that if people can't access care easily then they tend to do without, which is unacceptable to some caregivers. Granted not all equipment is portable, but they can handle most problems that don't need an ambulance and a hospital.
* There are flat clothiers, and not just one or two, and not just medical or leisurewear. I have notes for Horizontally for Her and Horizontally for Him (basics compatible with a 4x4 wardrobe), All Dolled Up (women's fashions), Dolls in the Office (women's business fashions), Recumbent Businesswear (work attire for all genders), The Flat Dandy (dapper masculine clothes), The Gentleman in Repose (upper-class menswear), and Flat Fabulous (QUILTBAG clothes for all genders).
* Daybed Business: Office Equipment for the Horizontal Workforce is a T-American corporation that supplies adaptive equipment for bedridden workers. That probably isn't the only specialty company of its type, but that's what I've found so far. I do know there are a lot of modular and articulated products that can easily be configured in different layouts to serve diverse needs. "The Thing" is an all-purpose craft assistant with multiple arms, clamps, lights, magnifiers, etc. which is very helpful for a wide range of dexterity, mobility, and position limitations.
* Lateral Living is a magazine for bedridden people of all ages, genders, and ability levels.
Now, part of that -- the vans especially -- is from supervillains. They have enough money and technical skill to influence what gets made in some fields. They like having a bench with a weapons locker underneath, and they expect to get injured so they want a way to lie flat and still be secure. The superheroes picked it up from there, although they prefer white vans to black.
The benches, bus shelters, and quiet rooms belong to the general accessibility efforts.
Much of it comes down to the widespread effort toward employment of disabled people. While not everyone is up to working, T-America tries very hard to ensure that everyone who is willing and able to work has opportunities to do so. Because people with disabilities are more visible in society, the impact of acquired disability is less than here. It still sucks to lose capability, but fewer people see it as a life-wrecking disaster, it's just a challenge to adapt.
Some things, however, make me suspect there is a cohesive activism movement among people with sitting disabilities. Chief among these are the flat clothiers and the transit access, followed by the major accessibility features in some family bathrooms. It was seeing this website that reminded me of all the things I'd noted previously so I could connect the dots.
Sitting disabilities include a wide range of limitations from being unable to sit comfortably or safely more than briefly, being unable to tolerate hard unpadded seats, being unable to use seats that lack a back and/or arms, exceeding the allotted weight limit of seats, being able to bend their hips but not their knees and thus unable to fit into many seating types, being able to sit only in a reclined position but not fully upright, being unable to breathe or stay conscious unless fully flat, to being physically unable to bend the hips/back into a chair shape at all. It's all the stuff that makes standard seating difficult or impossible to use. Anything less than an hour of sit time will make life difficult, but it gets worse if the limit is 15 minutes or less than 5. Local-America does not deem these individuals worthy of traveling or entering public space at all, there is little or no accommodation for their needs, and many places have made it outright illegal for them to leave their homes.
Closely related, some people find it painful or impossible to sit for a time due to temporary health conditions. Childbirth is probably one of the most common, but any kind of surgery or injury to the area between lower belly and knees can have similar effects. Some illnesses also make sitting very uncomfortable if parts are sensitive. New body jewelry down there may do it too. So accommodations for people with permanent sitting disabilities also help people with temporary limitations. For these cases, the number-one cheap fix you can fit into most first aid kits or comfort kits is an inflatable, disposable donut cushion; with a bigger budget, a memory foam or gel cushion may extend the time someone can sit before they have to get up.
I will add a slightly different subset of challenges: people like me whose bodies can take many positions, but cannot remain in the same position -- any position! -- for very long. At the moment I am sitting cross-legged in my office chair. Sometimes I have one knee up, or both feet on the floor in the "usual" position, or stretched out semi-reclining. As long as I can move around every 10-15 minutes, I'm fine, but I do need equipment that permits me to shift positions. Thus, the kind of accommodations that are good for nonsitters are also helpful to me, and the kind of abuses that are bothersome to them are often bothersome to me too. And the group of people who can sit some but not more than a medium time or who need to shift positions is probably a lot bigger than the group who can't sit at all, so this is a larger issue than it might seem at first glance.
An interesting customer magnet in areas of heavy foot traffic: anti-fatigue mats and foam floor covers. I was browsing a vendor barn with a concrete floor, and did not realize how much my feet hurt until I stepped into the heavily padded Tupperware booth and they stopped hurting. So I browsed heavily to give my feet a break, and found things to buy. While essential for standers, these are appealing to everyone. There is no reason that the built environment should be uncomfortable and people expected to put up with unnecessary misery.
Since I have many readers with a wide range of mind/body issues, I figured these resources might prove helpful to share around.
Some useful sections from the site:
* My Symptoms
Everyone's issues are different. It can be helpful to make a list.
* Things I’ve Tried, Things I Haven’t
When you have a problem, use the engineer problem solving method. First take a baseline. Define the problem as precisely as possible. Then attempt different solutions, and keep track of what works or doesn't. Things that don't work for you may work for someone else, and vice versa, so these records are very handy in the disability community.
* Getting Around
L-America classifies transportation as a paid privilege, not a right. This means some people are imprisoned at home, if they are fortunate enough to have a home. It also fits with life being a paid privilege, not a right. Because if you can't travel, you can't access most services including health care. Since caregivers no longer make housecalls, health care is only for people who can travel. Which is evil.
* My Workstation
How I actually found this site was looking for ergonomic office equipment, which led me me to alternative workstations such as computer beds. A sleeping desk is a very versatile, often affordable option that can work in many different positions from upright to flat. LAN racking systems are like adult-sized erector sets for building computer stations in any configuration using mounting hardware, desktops, shelves, cabinets, etc. There are also actual erector set furniture kits for children and adults, with which you can build almost anything. Any kind of modular furniture makes it easier to assemble adaptive workspace. Interactive workstations for imaging are also highly adjustable. These are billed as "gaming" desks and beds, but they offer many ergonomic options including supine, reclining, sitting, standing, treadmill, and even cycling. Zero-gravity stations range from small and simple to big and complex, depending on user need. They are expensive, but if you are going to spend your life in that chair or bed, they are worth the investment for those who can afford them. People who can't sit often need alternative keyboards or mice too, suitable for using in other positions. It helps that many of these things look classy instead of that ugly clinical crap so often fobbed off on people here.
Here, such things are rarely covered by insurance; most people find it more feasible to do without or buy their own than attempt to extract resources from hostile forces. Meanwhile over in Terramagne, this category of adaptive equipment is an everyday part of office stores as well as home health equipment stores, and it is either covered outright or subsidized so it doesn't cost more than average office equipment. One of the things that occupational therapists do in attempt to cheer up distraught clients is offer them a catalog of all the cool things which might make life easier, and which are readily available there. It doesn't make the problem go away, but the right equipment makes the situation suck a lot less and can greatly reduce the impact on what people can still do.
* Sleeping
Many disabilities disrupt sleep in various ways. There are numerous tools and techniques that help people sleep better, from sleep chairs (some of which go from fully upright to fully flat) to obscure practices like yoga nidra.
* Health Consequences
Limited mobility screws up your health in many ways. Among those is that if you have only one or a few positions you can be in, it throws more stress onto certain parts of your body. If you can't sit, you are likely to develop neck, back, arm, leg, and/or foot problems based on overuse of some other position. Ergonomic equipment and exercise can help reduce these issues for some people. Also, the "sitting is bad for you" trend can be very distressing to people who can't sit, so you may want to avoid that topic around them.
* Legal Recognition
Here there is little or no protection. While the ADA technically covers sitting disabilities, there is rarely any accommodation for them in practice. T-America does a much better job of protecting people's right to travel, access services, be in public, survive, and exist regardless of their abilities or disabilities.
* Wish List
Here is a description of what it would look like if society accommodated the needs of people who can't sit, with attention to many different areas of public space and life activities. Awareness is easily promoted just by boosting the signal. Much of the stuff is beyond ordinary reach, but some is available to anyone. Does your workplace have chairs, desks, tables, counters, etc.? Make sure there is a bench or couch where someone could lie down, and an adjustable desktop or table that goes from sitting to standing height. A leaning rail is easy to install and takes up little or no floorspace. Companies or other organizations should have a first aid corner or room (depending on size) with a private area for lying down. Some places have a separate quiet room or nap room with loungers or cots. At events, make sure you include standing space and benches or chairs where folks can sit with legs extended. Provide anti-fatigue mats for all standing stations.
This really got me thinking about Terramagne. I've been seeing bits and pieces of this for years over there. Examples include:
* There are benches just everywhere, and most of them don't have interior armrests. Along the sidewalk, throughout parks, just outside and just inside most doors, there are places to sit or lie down.
* Most bus stops have shelters, and most of those include either benches or mixed seating such as benches, chairs, and leaning rails.
* Buses typically have a docking area for wheelchairs, or more rarely, travel beds. Some use this place for standers, other have a separate space for them with floor padding, and grab bars or straps. Mass transit is discounted or free for people with disabilities.
* Almost every van has a flat option. Some have chairs that recline flat, others have narrow benches, some have a bench seat that opens into a bed. Frequently the floor has docking rails to hold seats, benches, cargo bins, etc. in diverse configurations. With rails, you can also dock a wheelchair (including a zero-g or reclining one) or the kind of gurney that goes in the back of an ambulance. There are also integrated cargo nets and/or snaffles to attach whatever kind you want, so you can lie down and still have seatbelt-type security. I would bet that most cars, where the design allows, also have at least one seat that reclines flat or near-flat.
* A great many apartment buildings, community centers, malls, police departments, churches, and other organizations have their own transport. That can be one vehicle or a whole motor pool. They usually have a lift and space for various accommodations in addition to standard seats. A large organization may have a dedicated van or bus for disabled members, and it's a lot easier to fit a travel bed that way than cramming it in the back of a mixed-use vehicle. In particular, health care providers typically have a fleet of different vehicles, including some with lifts and/or travel beds, for transporting clients who can't easily get there and back again by themselves. This takes some weight off the mass-transit system and makes it easier for people to socialize and access services.
* Paratransit is obligated to move people in a prompt and polite manner, with whatever accommodations necessary including flat travel, for free. Towns often augment the official service with charities or support circles that provide travel assistance too.
* Airplanes are required to accommodate disabilities. The little private ones don't always have room for all options, but the big public planes have to provide at least a few seats that lie flat and a docking area for wheelchairs and travel beds. They are not allowed to charge extra; the cost is the average ticket price. If they only offer accessible space in one part of the plane, they have to upgrade or discount the ticket accordingly. Angel Wings is an air travel charity that provides compassionate travel for free to people with disabilities, so they can do things like attend weddings, funerals, and other family events.
* Diverse bicycles are much more common and affordable, including various types of recumbent bicycles or tricycles with a reclining position, and supine or prone tricycles that are close to flat
* Dotties are genderfree bathrooms, often with a shower, sometimes a dressing bench, and widely available. Family bathrooms are common in large buildings such as malls and have a suite of rooms such as a nursing lounge, quiet room, and dottie cubicles. It's much more common there than here to have an adult changing table, a hoist, and/or other accessibility features.
* Quiet rooms are about as common as family-style bathrooms. Nap rooms are slightly less common. If someone needs a place to lie down, there are places that pretty predictably offer that, such as malls or other large public buildings.
* Restaurants and other public places typically have a range of accommodating furniture. Here all you usually see are high chairs and booster seats. T-America often adds adjustable tables or desks, chairs, lap trays, stepstools, and so on. Having an accommodations closet with a bunch of useful equipment just makes life easier for staff and customers alike. Bar None is a restaurant chain for people with sitting disabilities.
* Hostile architecture exists but is much less common, chiefly due to legal risks. The same is true of hostile legislature. People still do dumb shit sometimes, but they are much more likely to get challenged and lose. It is easy to point out the obvious harm of things like not having benches or making it illegal to lie down in public, in case someone gets dizzy or has a heart attack, in addition to making public space generally inaccessible for many people with disabilities.
* Some medics still make house calls. There are community paramedics and community nurses, and home care is among the options for field doctors. Some only work with disabled clients. Others work with anyone, because they feel that if people can't access care easily then they tend to do without, which is unacceptable to some caregivers. Granted not all equipment is portable, but they can handle most problems that don't need an ambulance and a hospital.
* There are flat clothiers, and not just one or two, and not just medical or leisurewear. I have notes for Horizontally for Her and Horizontally for Him (basics compatible with a 4x4 wardrobe), All Dolled Up (women's fashions), Dolls in the Office (women's business fashions), Recumbent Businesswear (work attire for all genders), The Flat Dandy (dapper masculine clothes), The Gentleman in Repose (upper-class menswear), and Flat Fabulous (QUILTBAG clothes for all genders).
* Daybed Business: Office Equipment for the Horizontal Workforce is a T-American corporation that supplies adaptive equipment for bedridden workers. That probably isn't the only specialty company of its type, but that's what I've found so far. I do know there are a lot of modular and articulated products that can easily be configured in different layouts to serve diverse needs. "The Thing" is an all-purpose craft assistant with multiple arms, clamps, lights, magnifiers, etc. which is very helpful for a wide range of dexterity, mobility, and position limitations.
* Lateral Living is a magazine for bedridden people of all ages, genders, and ability levels.
Now, part of that -- the vans especially -- is from supervillains. They have enough money and technical skill to influence what gets made in some fields. They like having a bench with a weapons locker underneath, and they expect to get injured so they want a way to lie flat and still be secure. The superheroes picked it up from there, although they prefer white vans to black.
The benches, bus shelters, and quiet rooms belong to the general accessibility efforts.
Much of it comes down to the widespread effort toward employment of disabled people. While not everyone is up to working, T-America tries very hard to ensure that everyone who is willing and able to work has opportunities to do so. Because people with disabilities are more visible in society, the impact of acquired disability is less than here. It still sucks to lose capability, but fewer people see it as a life-wrecking disaster, it's just a challenge to adapt.
Some things, however, make me suspect there is a cohesive activism movement among people with sitting disabilities. Chief among these are the flat clothiers and the transit access, followed by the major accessibility features in some family bathrooms. It was seeing this website that reminded me of all the things I'd noted previously so I could connect the dots.
