Keeping disabled farmers on the job

Ser­vices, ‘assis­tive tech­nol­ogy’ offered at no cost

BY MIKE SEFFRIN

mseffrin@sdnccg.com

Despite mod­ern advances in agri­cul­ture, farm­ing can still be a phys­i­cally demand­ing occu­pa­tion. But for farm­ers with dis­abil­i­ties or health prob­lems, a free pro­gram can help.

Ohio AgrA­bil­ity, which oper­ates through Ohio State Uni­ver­sity, is part of a national pro­gram that pro­motes inde­pen­dence for peo­ple in agri­cul­ture who want to con­tinue farm­ing after expe­ri­enc­ing a dis­abling con­di­tion. The program’s goal is to pro­vide edu­ca­tion, resources and tech­ni­cal assis­tance. OSU has part­nered with Easter Seals to offer the pro­gram in Ohio.

Kent McGuire, edu­ca­tion pro­gram coor­di­na­tor with Ohio AgrA­bil­ity, said the pro­gram is in its fourth year at OSU and has been in exis­tence nation­wide about 20 years.

Ser­vices are offered at no cost to farm­ers, McGuire said. The pro­gram is funded by a U.S. Depart­ment of Agri­cul­ture grant.

In 2012 the state pro­gram had about 35 clients “we work with on reg­u­lar basis pro­vid­ing site assess­ments,” McGuire said. In addi­tion, pro­gram per­son­nel worked with about 180 peo­ple who con­tacted Ohio AgrA­bil­ity about solv­ing spe­cific prob­lems. For many clients, mul­ti­ple assess­ments are con­ducted because of the wide vari­ety of sit­u­a­tions involved. “There are envi­ron­men­tal changes,” McGuire said. For exam­ple, he said, how a farmer would per­form a task “when it’s sunny and 70” is dif­fer­ent than how he would do the same job in January.

The pro­gram offers “assis­tive tech­nol­ogy” to help a per­son com­plete a job that oth­er­wise might be dif­fi­cult. Exam­ples of this include:

• Mod­i­fied steps or handles.

• Hand controls.

• Lever extensions.

• Out­door mobil­ity aids.

• Motor­ized lifts.

The pro­gram also pro­motes “uni­ver­sal design”— solu­tions that pro­duce build­ings, prod­ucts and envi­ron­ments that make tasks eas­ier for every­one, not just peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties. Exam­ples of this include:

• Smooth ground sur­faces of entry­ways — with­out stairs.

• Large han­dles on buck­ets, uten­sils and tools.

• Lever han­dles for doors rather than knobs that twist.

• Light switches with large, flat pan­els rather than tog­gle switches.

• Acces­si­ble cab­i­nets, stor­age spaces and work stations.

Farm­ers who have used the pro­gram appre­ci­ate it, McGuire said.

“The response has been very pos­i­tive because we’re assist­ing them with increas­ing their pro­duc­tiv­ity and reduc­ing bar­ri­ers and lim­i­ta­tions they face because of a dis­abil­ity,” he said. “In the over­all scheme of things, we’re help­ing them to be pro­duc­tive in doing some­thing they love, which is farming.”

Dis­abil­i­ties that AgrA­bil­ity deals with may be because of injury (farm and non-farm), health issues or age issues.

“We have an indi­vid­ual who is in a wheel­chair and has been for quite some time. He still actively farms,” McGuire said. But he is start­ing to develop arthri­tis in his upper body.

The pro­gram is flex­i­ble in the kinds of ser­vices it pro­vides, McGuire said, which helps if a client is reluc­tant to accept assistance.

“It all comes down to each indi­vid­ual. … To over­come that (reluc­tance), we pro­vide them with resources they can use imme­di­ately,” he said. “The other key is we will do as lit­tle or as much as the indi­vid­ual wants. We really kind of keep it open to meet the needs and com­fort level of the individual.”

To make the pub­lic aware of the pro­gram, pro­gram rep­re­sen­ta­tives attend ag-related events such as the Farm Sci­ence Review and ag– safety days, McGuire said. They also work with other com­mu­nity orga­ni­za­tions such as the Arthri­tis Foun­da­tion and Cen­ters for Inde­pen­dent Living.

“It really helps to sur­round the indi­vid­ual with all the resources avail­able to them,” he said.

McGuire grew up on a farm and still lives in a rural com­mu­nity in Wyan­dot County.

“I’ve seen over the years the impact an injury or ill­ness can have on a fam­ily farm in a small, rural com­mu­nity,” he said.

More infor­ma­tion about the Ohio AgrA­bil­ity pro­gram is avail­able on the web­site, agrability.osu.edu. McGuire may be con­tacted by phone at (614) 292‑0588 and by email at mcguire.225@osu.edu.

(Mike Sef­frin writes for the Sid­ney Daily News.)

Posted by Tina Murdock on Jan 10 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.