Submitted by: Elishiba J.

Perspective: Person with a disability

I absolutely love accessibility hacks. In fact, I wanted to say that caring for a newborn baby has many small accessibility hacks, but they make a big difference. One of my favorite accessibility hacks involves re-orienting a typical baby stroller. If you have a baby stroller with a wide bar handle, this works best. First, you want to make sure that the baby is securely strapped in using the five-point harness.  You want to make sure that each of the clips is secure.  Here’s a hint: the infant’s armpits are a great reference point for where you should be putting the chest clip.  The alignment of the armpit rule also works for car seats and highchairs.  Be careful because some kids might sit on their crotch buckle.  My son does it all the time. It’s nothing really, it’s just silly.

What you can then do is, once you have your baby fastened in, is pull the stroller instead of pushing it. This way the infant is facing forward, which makes sense for the baby, at least. What I liked about this is that I still have a bit of flexible extended space right in front of me to use my blindness cane and still make sweeping arcs. I am now pulling a carriage behind me to ensure that the child or children are safe. You can use this with a flat long bar handle and mini stroller that comes with that configuration, so that you don’t need a double handled stroller. Some strollers are big giant wagon models. Those are nice too, but for any type of stroller, my advice is to pull the handle so that the baby is moving forward. Thankfully, I live in an area that really has lots of walking paths.