DISABILITY ISSUES
Vol. 21 No. 2

'Toolbox' for Farmers with Disabilities

Farming is physically demanding enough for an able-bodied person. Imagine what it's like for a farmer with a severe disability, such as an amputation, paralysis, or a visual impairment.

Those images stirred Purdue University's Breaking Ground Resource Center to action. The result was The Toolbox, a resource manual for farmers with disabilities. First published 15 years ago, The Toolbox was believed to be the only such catalog for assistive technology for farmers.

'The third edition recently rolled off the presses, with many new and updated sections," said Paul Jones, manager of the Breaking New Ground Resource Center. The center is Purdue's outreach program for farmers with disabilities. There are about 550 different items featured in The Toolbox.

"You'll find such things as tractor lifts, hitching devices and powered gates," Jones said. "A lot of these are homemade devices. Fifteen or twenty percent are homemade products people submitted."

Topic areas include: Shops & Shop Tools, Trucks & Off-Road Vehicles, Outdoor Mobility, Lawn & Garden, Outdoor Recreation, and Safety & Health.

Commercially available items are listed with supplier contacts.

Both the 1986 and 1990 editions of The Toolbox sold out print runs of more than 1,000 copies each. The manual's market is substantial. More than a half million farmers and other agricultural workers in the United States have physical disabilities that make it difficult to perform routine farm tasks. And each year, approximately 10,000 new cases of debilitating injuries or illnesses occur.

"In the back of The Toolbox we've put case studies of individuals who've risen above their disabilities," Jones said. "A lot of them have the spirit that they're not going to be beat. They have the attitude that if they can't do something one way, they'll find another."

A Toolbox preview can be downloaded at the cumbersome web address: pasture.ecn.purdue.edu/ABE/Extension/BGN/toolboxpreview.pdf.

The Toolbox sells for $80, including shipping and handling and can be ordered by calling (800) 825-4264. The Resource Center has a number of other resources, a list of which you may request by calling the same number.