Using the MIX to Make a Difference

Written by Saron Mussie

Kathy McCabe, one of our MIX volunteer mentors who runs a weekly workshop called MIX Fix Textiles, is using the MIX and her skills to help an individual with a spinal cord injury and high skin hypersensitivity find greater personal freedom. How? By collaborating in the creation of a leg protector that will reduce the chances of this individual experiencing excruciating pain when he goes out in public in his wheelchair.

Earlier this year, an occupational therapist from the non-profit Brain Injury Services in Springfield, VA reached out to Kathy seeking creative solutions for the client. For this client, the slightest movement (i.e. a nudge to his wheelchair as people walk past) causes a great wave of pain, sometimes severe enough to cause him to pass out. He has voiced that going out is something he makes an effort to avoid.

The occupational therapist started to make the client’s life a little easier by building a customized frame that protects the legs using PVC pipe. This protector is placed along the sides of the wheelchair and the hand rests, with a tube that will serve as a buffer for his legs. That’s where Kathy came in.

The leg protector needed a cover, that way things wouldn’t fall through the pipes and hit the client’s legs. Kathy started working on her first prototype last summer and it made a huge difference when the client tested the prototype. She is currently working on her second prototype at the MIX.

Her plan is to make the cover both longer and wider to completely cover the leg protector and ensure that the client is fully protected. As of now, the prototype cover is made up of drop cloth and Velcro. For her next prototype, she plans on using a waterproof canvas fabric for the cover material.

Aside from volunteering for the MIX and Nova Labs, Kathy is also a student at GMU through the Senior Citizen Higher Education Act, which allows anyone over the age of 60 can audit classes for free at any public universities. Kathy is currently taking a 400-level math class and a 3D printing course.

Kathy shares that “I’m spending a day or two making something that can change how a person lives. It really is the small things in our life, that can be something big in another’s.”