Crib Modification for Accessibility

Furniture & Lighting

accessibility crib.jpg

Instructables user kelseymh modded an IKEA crib for accesibility for his wife, who’s a little person. He writes:

Parents with disabilities face numerous challenges when caring for a newborn. Besides the usual lack of sleep and anxiety about such a small and dependent life, much of the equipment for infants and children present substantial barriers for parents with disabilities. Changing tables are built for standing, bathtubs can take two (or more!) hands, and cribs require parents to have substantial flexibility and lifting strength.

By the time we brought our newborn daughter home from the hospital, we had been thinking about the many adaptations needed to care for her. We consulted several times with Judi Rogers at Through The Looking Glass in Berkeley, a terrific organization with resources, advice and designs, and uniquely engineered equipment for parents with disabilities. Some things were easy: a mover’s dolly to move stuff around; a padded changing pad on the floor; trays of supplies stored in our coffee table. But using a crib posed a challenge.

4 thoughts on “Crib Modification for Accessibility

  1. jakeofalltrades.wordpress.com says:

    That crib just makes sense for everyone. I find the traditional lowering thing terribly awkward (and scary), and I’m 6’1″!

  2. Tressa says:

    Wow…this is a great idea. I’m 5’0″ and I had a very hard time finding a crib that worked for me. I would have loved to have a modified crib when my son was an infant.

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Becky Stern is a Content Creator at Autodesk/Instructables, and part time faculty at New York’s School of Visual Arts Products of Design grad program. Making and sharing are her two biggest passions, and she's created hundreds of free online DIY tutorials and videos, mostly about technology and its intersection with crafts. Find her @bekathwia on YouTube/Twitter/Instagram.

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