Disney World with Cerebral Palsy

SO - the day is coming.

We are taking our daughter to DISNEY WORLD!!  I am SO excited - they say it's the happiest place on earth and honestly... theme parks have become sort of my therapy over the years... a place I can go to forget all about any problems or cares in the world... where one can eat funnel cake and ice cream with a blatant disregard for all things healthy.  It's awesome.

So I'm going to wager a guess that going to Disney with children is a challenge at the best of times but going in a wheelchair is even more so.  I've been reading disability boards and forum posts to try to glean the absolute most out of the trip while making it as comfortable for my daughter specifically as possible.

I promise to report back on my finds but here is what I am planning to do:

• We will take a double stroller to the park instead of the wheelchair so her baby brother will be able to have his own seat (and we only have to manage pushing one thing) 
• We will go the day ahead to get a Disney GAC (guest assistance card) to help us use alternate entrances for rides and to use the stroller as a wheelchair.  I've read mixed reviews on this and it is up to the guest services person to decide what type of card you get.  You can get a "stroller as a wheelchair" stamp which allows you to take your stroller IN line (rather than leave it behind) or you can get one with double arrows on it which is the alternate exit card.  I believe there are other card types relating to autism, inability to be in a crowd, etc.
• I'm hoping to get parking close to the park.. I'm not sure how this will work but I know that having to get on a tram to the park will NOT work so here's hoping (fingers crossed)

General information from Disney World http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/guests-with-disabilities/ or specifically mobility issues http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/guests-with-disabilities/mobility/

They have PDFs specific to each park - a nice guide detailing each ride's accessibility features.

Disability Guides for:

• Magic Kingdom
• Epcot
• Hollywood Studios
• Animal Kingdom

Halloween Trick or Treating in a Wheelchair

So every year Halloween is a day when everyone can dress and act a little wacky and get away with it.  This year was the first Halloween at the new house, so you never know what to expect in terms of trick-or-treaters.. etc.  We only got about 10 or so kids.. but then I realized that my pumpkin's light went out so I'm not sure how much of the decreased traffic was associated with that.  Plus, in Ottawa, it was pretty darn cold that night so I can understand why kids wouldn't want to stay outdoors very long.

Anyway - I sent T to school in a rock star costume from High School Musical.. she looked pretty darn cute... she came home with some photos (in her school binder) of the rest of her class.  T's classmates have a variety of physical disabilities so it was cool to see how each parent tackled the challenge of costuming a child in a wheelchair for example.  A particularly neat idea was her classmate Henry's costume where he was a drummer in a rock band.  They had outfitted his wheelchair with faux-drums and dressed him up like a rocker.  It was really cute and a very creative use of the chair as an accessory to the costume.. kuddos.

Anyway - I'm not sure how many people are reading this BUT I have a question to pose.. has anyone given much thought to how to effectively trick-or-treat in a wheelchair?  We did only four houses this year so it wasn't a major problem that the houses were all inaccessible (we just picked T up and carried her) but it got me thinking that a)that isn't going to be a feasible option as she gets older/bigger and b)how in the heck do other families handle this?  I just remember Halloween having such awesome memories for me as a kid and I want my children to experience the same feelings I did... I'm just not sure how I can "adapt" this activity to make it fun for my daughter in years to come as well...

Ideas?

Barrier Free

So today I was in the middle of vacuuming my floors and had to do something with the baby so I just dropped the vacuum on the floor... thinking I would get to it later.. no big deal, right?  Anyway, so I made lunch for the kids, put everything on the table, and called everyone to eat.

Simple, right?

Wrong.

"Um.. mom, I can't get to the table"

I look down and my daughter (who is knee walking) is looking up at me after trying to figure out how to go around the vacuum cleaner on the floor.  I apologized profusely and quickly moved the vacuum to a more unobtrusive location.

Things like this happen sometimes but I'm usually very good about keeping things off the floor - organizing shoes so they aren't in the hallways - you know - normal household cleaning stuff.  The only difference in my house, though, is that if I don't clean up or tidy messes all day long, my daughter suffers and isn't able to access parts of her own home.

That reminds me of why we bought the house we did.. we just moved a year ago but it was a while looking before we actually found something appropriate.  We looked at tons of beautiful houses in beautiful neighbourhoods - some of which we would've otherwise purchased - except that we were looking for a barrier free property that allowed easy access throughout the home (in our case wheelchair access).

Here is what wikipedia tells us about barrier-free http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrier-free

Think about every house you've lived in and tell me if you think it's barrier free.. or even CLOSE to being barrier free.  How wide were the doorways? 30 inches?  Let's see (calculating standard width of a wheelchair = 25-27 inches plus oh let's say 3 inches per hand if you're holding ONTO the wheels to move it = 6 inches) so if 30 inches is a standard door width and a person in a wheelchair needs 31-33 inches - looks like they're not getting through there doesn't it?  Also - look down at the thresholds of your doorways or where different flooring types meet.  Is there a big bump/step up/threshold piece?  Hmm.. another FAIL.  Take note of the bottom of rounded stairs, do they jut out into the hallway?  Is the hallway wide enough?  Do you have major sets of stairs to even enter the home?  Is there a main floor washroom?  Bedroom?  Things I never even would've considered as factors in buying a home before are now front and center.

Anyway - that's it for me today - peace love.