For those people with mobility challenges, moving around and taking care of everyday tasks within the house is one thing; but doing tasks outside of the house is quite another thing.

After all, the house is one’s personal, unique environment. It can be molded, shaped, and controlled to suit one’s needs. If a light switch cannot be reached, extensions are available to lengthen one’s grasp. If the tub is slippery, grab bars and other stability aids may be added to the tub to make a person feel safer.

But outside of the house, it’s a different matter. Folks who may have trouble with mobility may feel that they are at the mercy of exterior environments. In one sense, this is understandable. A person can’t go around adding assistive devices to public buildings! But a person can bring along their own assistive devices.

An Extra Hand Out in the Garden

If you would like to spend the day in the garden, you know that hand-operated garden sprayers are just plain difficult to operate. The answer is battery-powered sprayers. One easy touch lets you adjust from a mist to a stream, and they spray as far as fourteen feet to those plants that are out of the way.

Help with Locking the Door

If you’re really going out on the town, the first order of business is to lock the door behind you. Keys can be incredibly difficult to turn. Factor in other problems like rusty deadbolts, cold weather, and ice, and you may find yourself entertaining the idea of leaving the door unlocked. But this is not an option. Instead, key turners help you grip the key and provide up to 300% more turning leverage.

Gas Up and Get on the Road

Maybe you have no problem with driving except for one thing — opening up the gas cap. Since the days of smiling gas attendants are long gone, you can use a gas cap wrench to smoothly unscrew the cap. “Wrench” is really a misnomer, since this smart, T-shaped assistive device is specially made for gas caps, fits perfectly over the entire gas cap head, and tucks neatly away in your glove compartment when not in use.

Meeting Friends or Hitting the Stacks?

It doesn’t matter whether you are meeting friends for a game of pinochle, poker, or bridge, cards are easy to hold with hands-free card holders, and super-easy to see with extra-large letters and numbers. If you’re going to the library or bookstore instead, those brand-new bestsellers are much easier to crack open and hold with a book holder. Extend your arm to reach that latest John Grisham or Danielle Steele novel with the help of lightweight reachers. Can’t find what you’re looking for, but hate using the library computer because of limited finger mobility or discomfort? Type aids are neat slide-on assistive devices which help you to push computer keys without using even a single finger.