I Want to play, too Community

What's a better way to spend your time than spending it outside in your community. In my opinion, I think living in Colorado is so much fun. At first, many people may think there are not many activities to do here, but when you take a deeper look there are actually many different activities that you can enjoy in Colorado. From a number of hiking trails, water activities, tours, and indoor activities there is something for the whole family to enjoy.  Being out in nature to me is like the blood that runs through my body; it is a natural part of what makes up my personality. In this blog, I am going to be answering the question that has been on everyone's mind. What types of activities can I do in my community with one hand?

The Power Of Asking

There's nothing wrong with asking questions. In fact, most of the adventures I have been on have started by picking up the phone and calling the place you want to visit and say something along the lines of"I have a disabled daughter/ son or I have a disabled person in my family who wants to do the activities that you provide." Then follow that by asking " do you have modifications for a certain activity or in your opinion, do you think that they can do the activity and have fun?  By calling ahead and asking these types of questions will do two things; one it will let you know if that particular place can do modifications for that person or if you need to look at a different place and two it saves the headache of assuming that they do modifications and showing up to find out that they don't, in which you then have to find a different activity to do on the spot. Some places may do modifications and some may not; it all depends on how intense the activity is and whether it will be a good fit for that disabled person.

Activities I Participated In As A Kid

Being a kid with disabilities can be a little tricky sometimes; especially when it comes to finding activities that they can do in the community. In a kid's mind whether they are disabled or not they all want to keep up with the other kids and do the types of activities that everyone else is doing, but it can feel overwhelming, frustrating, and can even make you feel sad when you are a kid with disabilities trying your hardest to do the same activities as the other kids, but can't seem to keep up with the others or you can't see as well as the other kids so it is hard to participate in the activity. The nice thing though, is that the community has many different activities that kids with disabilities will be able to participate in and have fun. When I was a kid, some of the activities I participated in included

1. Running/walking the Nike 5k for kids
2. Taking tennis lessons
3. Playing baseball with my family
4. Playing mini golf 
5. Going for bike rides
6. Picnics
7. Camping
8. Hiking
9. Bowling
10. Ballet

Mini-golf

Baseball Time

                     After Ballet Recital

Other Activities For Disabled kids

When I did some research online, I was surprised at how many different activities, programs, and sports they have out in the community for kids with disabilities. Just about every activity, sport, or programs that kids without disabilities join can be modified for disabled kids. Let's take a closer look at some of these activities, shall we?

 Programs For Disabled people Who Want To Play Sports

There are so many different types of sports to choose from around the world with each region having different sports or having their own version of how to play a certain sport. One thing that is nice about living in the type of society that we do, is that there is a lot of different sports programs for kids with disabilities that allows them to have fun choosing from a large variety of sports and being able to play those sports with kids just like them. Some of these programs include;

1. Special Olympics
2. Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF)
3. Challenger Athletics
4. KEEN (Kids Enjoy Exercise Now)- 
5. Blaze
6. Sports for Kids Foundation
7. AAPM&R Directory of Sports Organizations for Athletes with Disabilities 

These are some of the sports programs that allow kids with disabilities to play different sport or there are programs available for certain types of sports.

Non- Sports Activities For Kids With Disabilities

Not really the sporty type of person? No worries, there is still a lot of activities you can do that is relaxing, fun, and easy for kids with disabilities to enjoy. Around town or even on your own you can create or participate in the following activities

1. Nature walks
2. Camping trips
3. Scavenger hunts 
4. Playing at the park
5. Coloring with sidewalk chalk
6. Do different art classes
7. Splash around in a creek or river
8. Play with legos 
9. Play with a kite
10. Read aloud either at your local library or on your own

With these activities, you can still have fun without going all out if you are not the sporty type or even if you love sports, but looking for a fun and relaxing activity to do with your disabled child.

Activities For Teens With Disabilities

As a teenager, you like to spend most of your time with your friends doing stuff like playing video games, hanging out and just talking, or driving someplace and having fun that way. The thing is though, is that at least here in Colorado they don't have a lot of places for teens to hang out, so what types of activities canteens with disabilities participate in. As a teenager, I still loved the types of things I did as a kid; 

1. Spending time outdoors
2. Hiking
3. Camping
4. Splashing in a creek or river

As my family explored out some and found different activities, I widen my list of what I like to do to also include;

1. Riding on the utv
2. Riding on go-karts 

Activities For Adults With Disabilities

How I look at it is that the first 18-20 years of life is just practice for when we become adults. During that time we are learning life skills, making mistakes, and learning from those mistakes. As we get into adulthood, we then put those life skills into play, start figuring things out for ourself and living life to the fullest. As I talked about in one of my other posts, each of us has two small lives ( work and personal) that make up our whole life. As many of you know, my family is always exploring new and fun activities to try when we have free time. We are a pretty outdoorsy family spending our time hiking, UTVing, Splashing around in rivers, and camping. Last Friday though, we took our outdoorsy nature to the next level when we went white water rafting at Echo Canyon River Expeditions for the very first time. It was so much fun. The people there were super friendly and were handicap friendly.  When we arrived at the river where we were going to spend 6 hours rafting level 1,2,3 rapids, my mom talked to our tour guide and told him about my disabilities and told him that I wouldn't be able to hold the paddle and hold on. She then asked if there was a spot on the raft that I could sit and just hold on. Our guide was super nice and understood  my situation;in which he gave me the option of two different seats in the front of the raft were I could hold onto a blue rope that was tyed to the front of the raft. During the trip, there was a lot of laughter amongst everyone on our raft, tons of getting soaked by cold river water, and a bunch of storytelling when we weren't slashing down the rapids. If you are up for an adventure, I highly recommend trying white water rafting.

Other Activities I Want To Try With My Disabilities

There are so many different activities out in the community for people who love a good adventure. Some other activities that I haven't done yet, but defiantly want to do include;

1. Ziplining
2. Going on a hot air balloon ride

These activities I still have to do some research on to see what places can accommodations for people with disabilities, but when I find more information I will let you guys know.

When you think of it, there are actually a lot of different activities that you can do with disabilities. Who knows, your next adventure could be one phone call away.