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Karin Willison:
Hi, I’m Karin Willison and I’m co-president of Mobility Aids Lending Library in Bloomington, Indiana. This is your Assistive Technology Update.
Josh Anderson:
Hello and welcome to your Assistive Technology Update, a weekly dose of information that keeps you up to date on the latest developments in the field of technology designed to assist individuals with disabilities and special needs. I’m your host, Josh Anderson with the INDATA Project at Easterseals Crossroads in beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana. Welcome to episode 678 of Assistive Technology Update. It is scheduled to be released on May 24th, 2024. On today’s show, we are very excited to welcome some folks from just South of here down in Bloomington, Indiana. We are very excited to welcome Karin Willison and Lesley Davis. They’re from the Mobility Aids Lending Library or MALL, and they’re here to tell us all about it and the great work that they do. We’re also excited to welcome back Amy Barry from BridgingApps with an app worth mentioning. Folks, today also, marks a pretty special occasion, at least I guess personally. This is episode 678. I actually started hosting this show on episode 378, so somewhere in there. This is either my 300th or 301st. Oh, who knows? But anyway, it’s somewhere in there.
To our listeners, I just want to thank you all so much. Thanks for putting up with me and hopefully at least the guests have been great and you’ve been able to learn something from them and get some great information. But folks, I’ve already taken up plenty of your time, so let’s go ahead and get on with the show.
Well listeners, we here at the INDATA Project are pleased to host a web accessibility webinar for programmers and developers on Wednesday, May 29th 2024. Attend and join renowned web accessibility professional Dennis Lembree for a full day of training. The training starts with a background on disability guidelines and the law. Many techniques for designing and developing an accessible website are then explained. Basic through advanced levels are covered. The main topics include content structure, images, forms, tables, CSS and ARIA. Techniques on writing for accessibility and testing for accessibility are also covered. If you’re involved in web design or development, don’t miss this wealth of practical knowledge. Our speaker, Dennis Lembree is a senior accessibility consultant at Deque Systems. He was previously director of accessibility at Diamond Web Services and worked several years on the PayPal and eBay accessibility teams. He also has experience at several startup companies and contracted at large corporations, including Google, Ford, and Disney.
Mr. Lembree published articles, led webinars, and presented on digital accessibility at many conferences, including HTML five DevCon, CSS DevCon, CSUN, AccessU, Accessing Higher Ground, Accessibility Toronto, and Paris Web. Dennis runs a blog Facebook and Mastodon account on web accessibility called WebEx. He created an accessible two-time national award-winning Twitter app, Easy Chirp, which is now sunset. So remember, if you’re involved in web design or development or want to learn more about web accessibility, please join us for our web accessibility webinar for programmers and developers on Wednesday, May 29th, 2024. We’ll put a link down into the show notes that will get you over to more information as well as our registration page. There is no charge to attend this webinar, but you do need to register. So if you’re interested, please check out the link in our show notes. Listeners, up next, we are very excited to welcome back Amy Barry from BridgingApps to the show with an app worth mentioning. Take it away, Amy.
Amy Barry:
This is Amy Barry with BridgingApps, and this is an app worth mentioning. This week I’m sharing a new feature of Apple called Live Speech. Live Speech allows individuals who cannot speak or who have lost their ability to do so over time to type out their messages, which are then spoken during FaceTime calls or face-to-face conversations. Additionally, users can create a personalized voice by reading a set of randomized text prompts and recording it for 15 minutes, resulting in a voice that closely resembles their own. To use Live Speech on your iPhone, go to settings, accessibility, Live Speech, and then turn on Live Speech. You can also use Live Speech on your iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch. For more information on assistive technology and apps, visit bridgingapps.org.
Josh Anderson:
Listeners, our guests today reside just a little South of here in beautiful Bloomington, Indiana, and we’re very excited to welcome Karin Willison and Lesley Davis from Mobility Aids Lending Library or MALL to the show to tell us all about this exciting program. Karin, Lesley, welcome to the show.
Karin Willison:
Thank you. It’s great to be here.
Lesley Davis:
Thanks, Josh. Happy to be here.
Josh Anderson:
Yeah, it is so great to have you on. I’ve been looking forward to being able to talk about the Mobility Aids Lending Library and everything that you all do, but before we kind of get into that, could you tell our listeners a little bit about yourselves?
Lesley Davis:
Sure. I’ll start. I’m Lesley Davis. In my day job, I work at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, but in addition, I’m one of the founding members of the Mobility Aids Lending Library, and I am the chairperson of Bloomington, Indiana’s Council for Community Accessibility.
Karin Willison:
And I’m Karin Willison. I’m co-president of MALL, and I also run a website for people with disabilities called The Ability Toolbox, and I’m a member of the Bloomington Council for Community Accessibility.
Josh Anderson:
Awesome, awesome. And I have to ask, just because this kind of came up in the emails as well, could you also tell me before we get into talking about MALL, who are the Wheelie Women?
Lesley Davis:
Well, it’s a little bit like the band NSYNC or Menudo in that we are a rotating cast of characters who all so far happen to be women and happen to be wheelchair users.
Josh Anderson:
Oh.
Lesley Davis:
So we are on wheels.
Josh Anderson:
I gotcha. And you sing pop songs altogether? No, I’m just kidding.
Lesley Davis:
Oh, all the time. All the time. Yeah. It’s an added value that we offer.
Josh Anderson:
Perfect, perfect, perfect. Well, onto the Mobility Aids Lending Library. Kind of I guess just start with what is it?
Karin Willison:
Sure. So Mobility Aids Lending Library, it’s a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, and we provide free mobility and medical devices including canes, walkers, scooters, wheelchairs, shower chairs, and many other items to people who live in the Bloomington, Indiana area, including Monroe County and to some extent adjacent counties. And we collect a gently used mobility aids from people who no longer need them. We refurbish them, and then we place them with folks who have injuries, who have difficulty getting the equipment they need through insurance, who maybe have a broken device that they’re waiting for repairs. It’s a very, very low barrier process, so if someone asks for a mobility aid and we have it, then they can have it. And we don’t have a return date. People can keep items as long as they need them. We just ask that if they no longer need them, that they return them.
Josh Anderson:
Nice, nice. That’s excellent. That’s good that you’re not sitting there and having to hunt people down I guess is always a good thing, but that’s also great. They can use it just for as long as they need it, be it a temporary kind of need or something really permanent. I’ve got to ask, and I kind of know the answer to this just because I know the need, but when was MALL started?
Lesley Davis:
I think we started summer before last.
Josh Anderson:
Oh, nice.
Lesley Davis:
So summer of 2022. And yeah, so this summer I guess we’ll be two years old. And honestly, the idea grew out of, there are three of us who are neighbors who said, “Wouldn’t it be great if all of these mobility aids we’ve collected over the years that we’ve either outgrown or they don’t work for us anymore, or they weren’t the right thing to begin with, and you can never give it back. You can never give durable medical equipment back. Wouldn’t it be great if we made it possible for people who need it to be able to get it?” And so that’s how the idea was born.
Josh Anderson:
That is awesome. How many items do you kind of currently have?
Lesley Davis:
Karin?
Karin Willison:
Many, many items. I believe we have roughly eight power chairs, probably about five or six manual wheelchairs, several shower chairs, and then just a wide assortment of other devices. We have some pediatric equipment, wheelchair standards, that sort of thing, a whole lot of Roho cushions that were just donated yesterday. So just what we have, our stock changes all the time, but we always have a lot of different things, including things that people may not realize that we would have.
Lesley Davis:
And I’ll point out that part of what we do is in partnership with our Monroe County Public Library, and they circulate our sort of smaller items, which would be walkers, canes, crutches, and rollators. So people can also just come into the Monroe County Public Library and check something out like they would a book except there’s no due date.
Josh Anderson:
Oh, that’s awesome. So it works almost like, I don’t want to say showroom, but kind of like a showroom kind of area where I could go and if I had that need, I’d just go into the Monroe County Library. And is that all branches of the Monroe County Library or?
Lesley Davis:
Just one for now. We hope to expand it to their second newly opened branch pretty soon.
Karin Willison:
But it is the main branch. It’s located downtown, and it’s access to public transportation. So folks can easily get there and they can go during anytime open hours and they can get a mobility aid. And then if they need a larger item such as a wheelchair, a shower chair, anything that requires someone with an understanding of mobility aids, greater understanding to match them with the correct item, then they fill out our form and then we make a appointment to meet with them and match them with the right item.
Josh Anderson:
Oh, that’s awesome. You already answered my next question. I guess, I do have to ask, let’s say that I’m someone that wants to donate a mobility aid of some kind. How do I go about donating?
Karin Willison:
It’s the same process. You can fill out the form and then depending on what you’re donating, you’ll either be directed to the library or to contact us to make an appointment to drop off the items. In some cases, if it’s local and it’s something that you can’t transport such as a power wheelchair, then we can pick it up.
Lesley Davis:
And I’ll point out that the forms that we’re talking about is on our website, which is Karin?
Karin Willison:
Mobilityaidslendinglibrary.org.
Josh Anderson:
Awesome. Awesome. And I will tell you here kind of at INDATA, we get lots of calls from individuals wanting to donate or needing to receive mobility devices. So I’m super excited to have this resource available to be able to kind of pass it on to folks, something that’s been needed for a long time. And I know that you’ve kind of, coming up on that second anniversary, which is awesome. Do you have any advice for maybe others out there that are looking to start a similar program in their area?
Lesley Davis:
I have some thoughts. Number one, it’s not hard. And we didn’t start out as an official nonprofit. We just started out as a community of people who wanted to do this. And at first we partnered with a local medical supply, medical products shop, and they were kind enough to donate some space to us in the beginning. And they also helped us sort of diagnose issues we might have with often the powered mobility devices. We sort of outgrew them and the space they had available. And meanwhile, we had also formed a partnership with the library.
So I would say if you have the will, if you know people who have things to donate, and if you know people who need things, really then all you need is space. We made the choice to become a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization so that we could do more in terms of fundraising. Often, and I’m sure your listeners will not be surprised, often the devices that are donated to us, if they’re powered devices, those batteries have been dead a long time probably. And the single most expensive part of say a power wheelchair or a scooter is the batteries.
Josh Anderson:
Yeah.
Lesley Davis:
And so we didn’t really have a way to raise money to replace batteries and then therefore make those usable items. So getting the nonprofit status, which really was not all that difficult, was important for us to do for that reason.
Josh Anderson:
Very, very cool. And Karin, this is kind of for both of you and I know you’ve kind of already answered this, but if you had to go back and start over two years ago, what would you do differently or kind of what lesson have you learned that you wish you would’ve known walking in, besides the batteries being expensive, I guess?
Karin Willison:
Yeah, I think that managing storage and choosing wisely which items to accept and kind of managing that is really important because it’s interesting because we have supply and demand, and the most popular items that we have are the rollators, which the library handles. They get quite a few requests for those followed by manual wheelchairs because those are often needed by folks recovering from an injury, people who are coming to town and just need to borrow one, that sort of thing. So we have high circulation level of manual chairs. And then for the power devices, it’s primarily portable scooters, things that can easily be taken in and out of a car trunk. And that unfortunately is not something that we receive a lot of donation wise. So it’s managing that storage, figuring out how to take care of everything, maintaining batteries, budgeting for batteries for the power devices when they’re requested. And so there’s a lot of logistics, but it’s extremely worthwhile.
Josh Anderson:
Oh, most definitely. And like I said, kind of an opening these questions, it’s something that we are just so happy is kind of available. We do have kind of an AT reuse program here, but we’ve never had the space, the skill, or really anything for the durable medical equipment or the mobility devices. So, so happy to find out that not only does something like this exist, but it’s also in our backyard, which is just really amazing and kind of able to serve folks right down there in that kind of area. Now, I know you said that you have the partnership with Monroe County Public Library. Are there other partners that you work with?
Lesley Davis:
So I would say that they’re our closest partner in the sense that they are really doing a lot. And that really came to be because one of the people at Monroe County Public Library is also the head of the accessibility committee for our City’s Council for Community Accessibility. So that was really a built in partnership and they’ve been tremendously helpful. And I would advise others thinking of doing something like this. More and more libraries have something called a library of things where they lend more than just books or media. And so it might be worth approaching that person saying, “Hey, would you consider having rollators or wheelchairs in your library of things?” But other partners, we have a lot of folks who join us, I think mostly by virtue of also being members of the Council for Community Accessibility, which I realize not every community has, but it’s a great thing to start.
But for example, we often make referrals back and forth between Southern Indiana Centers for Independent Living, but in general, centers for independent living are great resources. Obviously, Easterseals. We were talking with the regional Red Cross the other day about the types of equipment they might want to borrow in case of emergencies and for use in emergency shelters. We also work with a local organization called Stone Belt for people with developmental disabilities. And so everybody’s been such a great champion of our work. And what they really help us do is they help us get the word out.
Karin Willison:
Yes. Yes. We’ve also worked with a couple other organizations. The Stride Center, which is a place that provides kind of emergency support and services for folks who are experiencing homelessness, folks with addictions, mental health challenges, that sort of thing. And some of those people also have physical disabilities and are in need of mobility items. So we’ve done some work with them. We get a lot of referrals from other agencies such as Area 10 Agency on Aging and some other local nonprofits.
Lesley Davis:
And physical therapists.
Karin Willison:
Yes, physical therapists and school. We recently had a school physical therapist come by. So it’s just I think a matter of folks learning that we are around and what we have, and then they’ll come to us one day, have somebody in need.
Josh Anderson:
Nice. And I think you touched on so many different things. So many different partners or really just individuals that can be assisted in different ways. I just had a meeting not long ago with folks from FEMA talking about just making sure that everything’s accessible for folks with disabilities during disasters. So I love that you’ve already talked to the American Red Cross just about having that resource available to them if something were to happen, just because I know sometimes folks with disabilities seem to be the kind of first ones forgotten when everything kind of goes haywire. So I like that they were forward-thinking enough to consider that, and then that you’re there as a resource to be able to assist them.
So I know we’re hitting, I think, tornado season soon. So I know that’s kind of something to think about, especially down there kind of in the Bloomington area. Well, I’m sure you probably have quite a few of these, and without kind of telling us too many kind of identifying information, could you tell me maybe a story or two about someone that you’ve been able to assist and just how maybe they were able to borrow something or use something that was able to help them out with their daily needs?
Lesley Davis:
I could tell a story from yesterday.
Josh Anderson:
That’s perfect.
Karin Willison:
Yes. Yes, please do you.
Lesley Davis:
So we had three generations of a family come by, grandma, mom and daughter, and they had contacted us saying that grandma, who is 96 years old, I think it was, they wanted to be able to get out and about more with her. She was certainly mobile, but probably not for long distances. And so they came to our storage location, which is in a church basement, and we looked at a couple of different wheelchairs and we, I think three or four of us were there to help them out, identify what made most sense. So first we had to know is this for just temporary use? And the answer was yes. So that was good.
So perhaps a perfect fit isn’t essential, but we wanted to make sure that the wheelchair had a really good supportive cushion on it because anybody who’s seated for a long time is in danger of getting pressure sores. And we had just that very day, had a donation of a bunch of really great seat cushions. And then we determined that most importantly, it should be easy for mom and daughter to fold up and put in the trunk of the car. And so then out of two or three that we looked at, we chose the one that was actually the transport chair. And the transport chair is one that doesn’t have big wheels. It only has small wheels because it’s only meant to be pushed. And it seemed pretty clear that grandma was not going to be pushing this herself, and it was super light and they left happy campers.
Josh Anderson:
Love it. Love it. Karin, do you have one that kind of sits in your mind that you can tell us about?
Karin Willison:
So first of all, I can tell a donation story. So from yesterday, as we mentioned, we had someone bring a lot of equipment. Unfortunately, their family member had passed away, but they had all these items and they thought of us, and we received, I believe, two manual wheelchairs, a power chair, and I think about 10 Roho cushions and some other assorted items. And that’s just, it’s just amazing because that’s going to allow us to do things like when we provide a transport chair, a manual chair to someone, to give them a good cushion so they can be comfortable and to be able to put good cushions on all of our chairs or switch them out if one gets weak, that sort of thing. So it’s just really amazing that someone was willing to do that for us, and we really appreciate all the donations we receive.
Lesley Davis:
And there was an added bonus. It wasn’t exactly a donation, but in a way it was. They came with their family members ramp van, an adapted, wheelchair adapted van that they no longer had use for. And it just so happens that one of the other wheelie women is in the market for a van, and so they arranged to sell it to her for just what was left on the loan.
Josh Anderson:
Oh, that is great. That is great. If you can start taking donations of wheelchair adapted vans and giving those out, that’d be great too because I know that’s just a gigantic need out there for folks as well.
Karin Willison:
Some day.
Lesley Davis:
[Inaudible 00:24:27].
Josh Anderson:
Amen. Amen. We would be too. I think besides the mobility aids and things like that, probably the biggest call we gets for the van. So I love that that ended up coming to pass as well, be able to help somebody else out with that because I know the cost is a bit high on those kind of things, but the difference they can make in someone’s life is huge as well. Karin, you already kind of told us, but if our listeners do want to donate something, to get more information, to request something, all of those, what’s a good way for them to do that?
Karin Willison:
They can go to our website, mobilityaidslendinglibrary.org. We can accept donations of items, we can accept financial donations, and it’s tax-deductible, both items and money are tax-deductible because we’re a nonprofit. And you can also follow us. We have a Facebook, you can follow us on there.
Josh Anderson:
All right, awesome. We’ll put all that information down in the show notes. Well, Karin, Lesley, thank you both so much for coming on today for telling us about the Mobility Aids Lending Library, the work you’re doing with the library down there as well. And just again, it’s a huge need, a huge just great service that you all are doing, and we’re so happy to have that as a resource for our folks down there in the Bloomington area.
Lesley Davis:
Thanks so much for having us, and we encourage your listeners, if they are thinking about starting a Mobility Aids Lending Library of their own, just send us an email at Mallbloomington@gmail.com.
Josh Anderson:
Do you have a question about assistive technology? Do you have a suggestion for someone we should interview on Assistive Technology Update? If so, call our listener line at (317)-721-7124. Send us an email at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org or shoot us a note on Twitter at INDATA Project. Our captions and transcripts for the show are sponsored by the Indiana Telephone Relay Access Corporation or InTRAC. You can find out more about InTRAC at relayindiana.com. A special thanks to Nikol Prieto for scheduling our amazing guests and making a mess of my schedule. Today’s show was produced, edited, hosted, and fraught over by yours truly. The opinions expressed by our guests are their own and may or may not reflect Those of the INDATA Project, Easterseals Crossroads, our supporting partners or this host. This was your Assistive Technology Update. And I’m Josh Anderson with the INDATA Project at Easterseals Crossroads in beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana. We look forward to seeing you next time. Bye-bye.