Assistive Technology Tool Kit
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Do you remember that 80’s show, MacGyver? If you don’t, let me tell you about it. Angus MacGyver was a secret agent with a glorious mullet who was for some reason frequently put into life-or-death situations. Spoiler alert, he always saved the day and did so with inventions he made from regular everyday items. While I don’t have the scientific knowledge to make a zip line out of a paperclip and a caster wheel, I do fancy myself a tinkerer from time to time.
When you’re working with tech or devices of any kind you develop a “tool kit”, or things to always have on hand when you try to adjust or “tweak” something. This article is going to focus on things to always have if you, like the AT team, are constantly trying to find ways to make things work differently.
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Sticky things
Things that stick. It’s a broad category, but I find myself needing sticky things pretty frequently. A good example of this is when I was adapting a cutting board to keep it from sliding. I had foam corners, but I needed something to stick the foam to the actual corners of the cutting board. Luckily, I have a box of random adhesive items on my windowsill. I always recommend having a few specific adhesive items; 3M Adhesive Strips, which are basically super strong double sided tape strips, adhesive Velcro, and Sugru. Sugru is an excellent putty type glue that can be formed into any shape. When it dries it becomes bendy. I’ve used it to adhere acrylic file organizers to my wall. The file organizers have been there for over a year and show no signs of falling.
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Image Description, from left to right:
- 3M Command Adhesive strip. It measures 3.65inches long and .75 inches wide. It is white in color and has a peelable part that comes off to expose the adhesive.
- Industrial Strength Velcro in a box. The Velcro comes in two strips, one with hook and one with loop. Both strips have adhesive on the back side.
- Sugru. A box of sugru comes with 8 small packages of single use moldable glue in both white and black colors.
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Pokey things
I’m always opening something or trying to move small pieces like tiny screws into place. While the term “Pokey things” sounds juvenile, that is genuinely the best name I can give them. The most versatile thing I’ve found is a pry tool kit. Pry kits, like this electronic repair kit from Kaisi, come with all sorts of plastic spudgers, tweezers, and tiny screw drivers. I’ve safely opened and fixed many things without cracking them by using plastic pokers instead of metal ones.
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Image Description: This Kaisi repair kit comes with 4 small screwdrivers, a suction cup attached to a ring, a microfiber cloth, a sim card remover, 6 various plastic tools used for prying.
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Cleaning things
Last but not least, always have some kind of cleaner with you. I have small alcohol pads, audio wipes for cleaning earbuds and headphones, microfiber cloths, anti-bacterial wipes and many other items to make sure all of my tech is squeaky clean. After you’ve handled your tech like MacGyver you always want to clean and sanitize your devices.
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Image Description, from left to right:
- Box of individually wrapped BD Alcohol wipes.
- Individually wrapped Audio Wipes for hearing instruments.
- Photo of a hand cleaning the lenses of a pair of glasses with a black microfiber cloth.
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If you want to grow your kit even more, consider taking a look at Therese Willkhomm’s Kit that she devised for an AT3 Newsletter in 2017.
The contents of this newsletter were submitted by Caelan Manning; A.T Consultant for HireAbility VT serving the St. Johnsbury, White River Junction, Brattleboro, and Springfield offices.
Contact the Vermont Assistive Technology Program by calling 1-800-750-6355 or by emailing dail.atinfo@vermont.gov. For more information visit our website (www.atp.vermont.gov). And if there is a topic that you'd like to see covered, please feel free to let us know!
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