Aids for disabled

Press, 17 June 1980, Page 6

Aids for disabled

Aids from specially designed underwear to a chair that climbs stairs were on view last evening at the Building Centre in Cashel Street. The occasion was the opening of a display week to mark the arrival in the Building Centre yesterday of a stall for the Aids and Information Centre for the Handicapped. The setting-up of the stall has been financed from a grant of $lOO,OOO from Telethon funds. The display, which features aids for a wide range of disabilities, includes gardening gear with attach-

ments to help disabled people grip and work them. There are small forks and trowels with long handles, large forks with wide handle-bars, and folding barrows with the carrying base parallel to the ground to make loading and ' unloading easier. A “stair chair,” imported from Australia and retailing about $3500, was one of the newest aids on display. Another was a swinging shower chair that can be fitted to any standard shower. Made in Christchurch, it retails for about $145, The chair is attached to the side of the shower, and after transferring to

it from a wheelchair or crutches, a disabled person can swing on it into the shower where all attachments can be reached from sitting height. The display will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. this, week, and will- close on Saturday. The aids and information centre was welcomed by the chairman of the Building Centre (Mr R. Husband), and the display was opened formally by the chairman of the grants advisory committee of the Arthritis and Rheumatism Foundation; > and. local branch chairman (Mr R. Wilton).