8 Useful Gifts for Wheelchair Users
Planning ahead is one of the secrets to finding the perfect gift. Just as for any gift-buying endeavor, consider your loved one’s hobbies and likes, and also their “wish list” to find the best gifts for wheelchair users.
To help narrow down the options, we’ve compiled a guide listing the best gifts for wheelchair users.
Gifting for Elderly Wheelchair Users
Elderly relatives who use wheelchairs will vary in their physical abilities. Your loved one may be partially or fully dependent on their wheelchair; some may use a power wheelchair, while others are manual wheelchair users. When searching for a holiday present, consider their physical health, comfort, and independence levels.
As the saying goes, it’s the thought that counts. Think about what brings your aging family member joy and look for appropriate holiday gifts within those categories. Your purchase should be a useful gift for a wheelchair user so they can appreciate and enjoy what you have given.
Adaptive accessories for wheelchair users always make practical and appreciated gifts. Silverts carries a line of adaptive wheelchair accessories to help your loved one stay comfortable and organized. We recommend:
- Wheelchair walker utility bag to store personal items
- Arm warmers protective cable sweaterknit to help keep arms and hands cozy,
- Terry shower towel cape for modesty and warmth
What Are the Best Gifts for Someone in a Wheelchair?
When planning a gift for a wheelchair user, contemplate whether or not you would be happy with the same gift. Special and useful gifts for wheelchair users include adaptive wheelchair clothing, accessories for wheelchairs, adaptive technology and more.
1. Adaptive Clothing
Adaptive clothing is designed to make daily routines easier for adults with disabilities and older people. These clothing products are designed with specially made closures and added features, such as magnetic buttons, handle straps for pants, side zip clothing for easy catheter access and more. A buying guide for wheelchair clothing is helpful if you are new to adaptive clothing.
Silverts’ adaptive clothing, such as men’s wheelchair pants and women’s wheelchair pants, can provide your loved one with increased independence as they can easily dress themselves. Magnetic closure tops are helpful for people with reduced hand function, too.
There are many benefits to wearing adaptive clothing for wheelchair users. Conventional clothing is designed for upright standing and movement throughout the day. For example, a traditional pair of jeans has a stiff waistband, rigid closure, and pockets made with thick seams that can be felt while sitting. Each of these classic features becomes uncomfortable when sitting for long periods (not to mention the challenge of getting these pants on as a wheelchair user).
Silverts has created a line of products that are designed specifically with wheelchair users in mind. While each user’s needs vary and may require products specific to someone’s individual experience, Silverts adaptive clothing’s wheelchair line is designed to be available to all wheelchair users while also being comfortable and fashionable. It’s an excellent gift for your loved ones.
2. Wheelchair Accessories
Adaptive wheelchair accessories that can enhance your loved one’s life is a great gift idea!
Heading into the winter months, staying warm is a priority for wheelchair users. Silverts has created the Women’s & Men’s Stay on Wheelchair Blanket. This reversible lap robe has a dome on each side that snaps into place on the wheelchair handles to keep the blanket in place. As this garment is designed specifically with wheelchair users in mind, there is no bulky overflow material that risks bunching, being caught in wheels or slipping off the wearer and falling to the ground. A product bonus we love with this blanket is the oversized hand pocket patch on the robe for easy hand warming and coziness. Another feature? The robe also provides additional coverage for skirts or dresses that are more likely to shift while sitting.
Enhancing comfort is always a priority. For wheelchair users who experience incontinence or leakage, Silverts Reusable Waterproof Seat Protector is designed with a multi-layer soaker to enhance absorbency against leakage and a waterproof bottom layer to provide additional cushioning and protection against both the wheelchair and user.
Storage bags and pouches designed for wheelchair users make fantastic gifts. Silverts has designed a wheelchair utility bag that is large enough to carry personal essentials for the day. Two large zip pockets and magnetic flap closure sit on the back of the wheelchair (and can be used for a walker, too). This wheelchair bag is waterproof, washable and durable. Your loved one will be ready to bring on the day with their essentials close by and ready to go.
3. Accessible Technology
Accessible technology devices can improve your loved one’s daily living experience by enhancing independence and confidence.
There are endless adaptive technology apps that can be downloaded on a mobile device and there are many forms of accessible technology that can enhance the wheelchair user’s independence.
Voice-activated devices allow your loved one to independently manage tasks with just their voice, reducing possible frustration and dependence on a caregiver.
Help your loved one create a smart home by purchasing holiday gifts such as smart plugs, thermostats and doorbells. These accessible technologies can be set up for voice activation and can also be controlled from the wheelchair user’s phone, giving them added control in their home environment.
Consider pairing any accessible technology with tablet stands and mounts for hands-free operation. The voice activation technology that is already built into these devices will make your practical gift a win-win.
4. Health and Wellness Gifts
When looking for gift ideas for the wheelchair user in your life, consider their overall health and wellness, too. Help your loved one nurture their physical and emotional health with self-care gift ideas, such as adaptive exercise equipment and ergonomic tools for relaxation.
Mindful exercises like yoga and meditation can be done sitting in a wheelchair. Exercises should be revised to and adapted to suit the disability the person is living with.
Gardening is also a mindful and physical exercise that can help calm your loved one’s mind and fill their soul. Consider indoor gardening tools or even a mini greenhouse to tend inside during the winter months.
5. Entertainment Options
Who doesn’t like getting lost in a good book or listening to a favorite podcast? If your loved one is a bookworm, an e-reader with accessible settings or an audiobook subscription may be the perfect gift idea.
For the movie or TV buff, a streaming service subscription may be just the thing your family member is looking for. You can include a lap tray for movie snacks as a bonus!
6. Home Adaptation Tools
Whether your loved one has been a lifelong wheelchair user or is a newer wheelchair user who has recently become disabled, home safety should never be overlooked. Life as a disabled person can be expensive when you factor in adaptive equipment such as a power wheelchair, mobility scooter, and wheelchair lifts to help your relative move up and down the stairs — to name a few.
Useful gifts for wheelchair users can incorporate home adaptation tools such as grab bars in the washroom, shower chairs, adaptive clothing and adaptive footwear. These types of adaptive equipment and tools help extend the wheelchair user’s independence and can also build their confidence.
Smart home devices such as video doorbells and voice-activated technology also empower wheelchair users by making it easier for them to perform many homecare tasks.
7. Personal Care Products
Along with self-care, personal care is an often-overlooked gift category for wheelchair users. Adaptive personal care and grooming tools have come a long way and make the best gifts for wheelchair users. Adaptive hairbrushes, makeup tools and shavers will all nicely fill the Christmas stocking.
Comfort items like heated blankets and massage devices are not just soothing at the moment; they have also been shown to reduce muscle aches and anxiety, which can be common with wheelchair users. Anyone will be happy to open these gifts!
8. Customized Gifts
Personalized gifts always offer that extra-special touch. If you are thinking about gifting your loved one a wheelchair bag or other wheelchair accessories, personalizing these gifts with an engraved name or iron-on patches you can do on your own will make their winter holidays even more special.
You can also make homemade presents like a collage with photos of their favorite people and places, hand-painted mugs and other specialty items to show you really love them.
Gifting for Wheelchair Users: Keeping Both Needs & Wants in Mind
Remember the golden rules:
- Think about how you would want to be treated when being gifted something and do the same for your family member.
- Take into account your loved one’s interests, hobbies and desires and try to match those with their gift.
- Of course, make sure the gift is adaptive and accessible for them.
Most of all, you will let them know how much you care for them and this will make their day!
Adaptive clothing and accessories for wheelchair users have advanced so much in the last several years. There really is something for everyone! For more gift ideas for wheelchair users, visit www.Silverts.com.
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