Adapting Arts Materials For Use By People with Disabilities

For People with Limited Dexterity and Other Physical Disabilities

• Use house painting brushes, foam wedges, roll-on applicators and squeeze bottles.
• Adapt paint brushes by slipping foam hair curlers over the handles or build up the grip with sports tape.
• Use homemade or purchased headgear to hold tools.
• Attach a rubber spatula to the end of a brush to create a comfortable mouth painting tool.
• Construct a cuff that can fasten a brush or tool to the hand.
• Use fingers and hands directly, rather than or in addition to adapted brushes.
• Use thick drawing tools, adapting as in above.
• Use hand rollers or rolling pins to flatten clay.
• You can get adaptive squeeze scissors called “spring scissors” as well as custom scissors with large loops for one- or two-handed cutting and spring action.
• Use stamps and cookie cutters that have grips so they’re easy to grasp.
• Make or purchase wheelchair easels or lap trays—may include Velcro scoot guards, pouches for supplies.
• Printmaking tools can be adapted by adding knobs or handles.
• Use pie plates for paint stabilized on a table by taping the pan to the table with heavy-duty tape.
• Offer a variety of fastening materials for making collages.
• Dance: upper body, arms and hands can do alternative versions of any movements that legs can do; heads can also move, as can eyebrows, lips.
• Use musical instruments that can be played with one hand or little movement. Wrist bells work for people who have trouble grasping.
• Attach bells to wheels of wheelchairs or scooters.
• Attach rain sticks to limbs with a Velcro strap.
• Add extra support to drumsticks by strapping them onto arms with Velcro.

For People Who Are Deaf or Have Hearing Disabilities

• Include visual props and cues.
• Face people when you are talking.
• Invite people to feel vibrations.
• Write out words related to activity, instructions, post large enough for everyone to see.
• Avoid dimming lights that might inhibit the use of vision.

For People With Chemical Sensitivities

• Avoid using aerosol sprays, latex gloves.
• Ask about sensitivities to glue, markers, starch, tempera paint, anything with an odor.

For People who are Blind or Have Low Vision

• Gel paint leaves a raised bead when dry, providing tactile definition.
• Add sand to tempera.
• Use high contrast paper and materials, especially black and white.
• Try sparkling or shiny paper, bold colors.
• Use collage materials that make a textured surface: scrunched tissue paper, fabric, cotton balls.
• Place paper inside a tray with raised edges to help define the boundaries.
• Notch paper in one corner to designate the top and the bottom.
• Set up or line up materials in open containers or trays. Tell people which material is first, second, third.
• Use thick cord taped to the floor to mark performance spaces.
• Attach a string or rope to opposite walls of a room for people can use as a guide in movement classes.

For People with Cognitive Disabilities

• Set out materials clearly. If there is an order for use of materials, make that obvious.
• Give instructions one step at a time. Check for comprehension before moving on.
• Demonstrate movements. Build sequences gradually.