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Neuro Note #1 - Lindsey Becker

     For my first Neuro Note, I chose to watch Lindsey Becker’s YouTube videos.  Lindsey is a 32-year-old that lives in Tennessee and happens to be Ms. Wheelchair TN 2018!  She was born with Spina Bifida.  Her spine did not form properly, and she had surgery when she was a few days old which left her with nerve damage.  Lindsey was affected at the L4-L5 region leaving her with partial paralysis.  Early on, she was able to walk with the aid of leg braces.  In junior high and high school, she began to use a wheelchair more.  By college, she started using a wheelchair more full time because of weakness.  She now uses a wheelchair full time and started her videos to educate, encourage, share her experiences, and hopefully help someone somewhere.  I loved Lindsey’s attitude toward her disability.  She stresses that people with disabilities do not have to be held back and can be successful, happy, educated, and useful to people.  She spends much of her time educating others on her disability.  Lindsey’s YouTube channel and Blog is called MeantToBeLindseyB.  She explains why in greatest way!  She says every experience, person, trial, and success is meant to be and all those things combined is what creates your story.  On Lindsey’s blog, she also says she knows she was meant to have a disability.  She feels that she was meant to be an inspiration to others.  Her story was definitely inspirational to me.  I felt that it proved that people with disabilities are capable of more than what society’s expectations are of them.  Lindsey says that she doesn't look at herself as having a disability, but society does, which I think is so true.  It is more important to focus on the abilities of individuals and too often most of society only see the disability.    
   
     I also learned a lot about home modification.  Lindsey’s home which she shares with her husband, who also uses a wheelchair, is adapted in many ways to help them live comfortably.  I didn’t previously know much about home modification, but I know it has a huge impact.  Her videos are really informative, and she shows many areas in her home that have been adapted.  There is definitely a lot of work that they put into adapting their home.  I thought some of the things they did were very creative, such as motion sensors for lights in the closet and a door on the upper part of their ramp in the garage to help with unloading groceries.  I can see where OTs would have a big role in helping people with home modification.  There are so many things that we don't consider such as how it is easier to have a front loading washer and dryer.  Also, having a double oven is not ideal.  I thought it was really neat when she was talking about future kitchen modifications, such as pull down shelves in the top cabinets.  I am interested to see what that looks like.  I didn’t realize all of the ADA requirements for ramps and non-slip tile that have to be met for funding.  There are definitely a lot of things you must consider, such as the length of the ramp and the number of turnarounds and landings.  She also showed how she gets in and drives her Mazda RX-8.  I thought that was really awesome!  I think a lot of people assume that someone with a disability cannot drive.  I have never seen the hand controls like the ones Lindsey uses, but they were very efficient.  It was very interesting watching how she drives and how easy it is for her to get in her car.   Lindsey also brought up how with technology they can live normal lives and do normal things.  I think this relates back to how important assistive technology is!  Lindsey also had several hacks for cleaning.   


            I chose to learn more about Lindsey after I learned she was going to be a guest speaker soon!  I had also never heard about the Ms.  Wheelchair TN and wanted to know more about her.  I was interested in learning more about her home adaptations also.  It was encouraging to see how independent Lindsey and her husband are!  I loved how encouraging Lindsey is, and I think she is really good at educating others!  
I would encourage you to watch her videos https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnRCO5qCNeoIUflFCpIf8sw/videos and also check out her blog http://meanttobelindseyb.com/about-me . 

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