Lap Tray

I write this blog mostly for my friends and family to keep them updated on my progress so I don't have to field constant questions from everyone I know.  I do it because I'm lazy.

But recently, I've been contacted by a couple paras who are interested in things I might know.  And in the year and a half that I've been doing this, I've learned a few things that might be helpful to other people, so from time to time I'm going to write about them.  If you know me, you already know about most of this stuff, so feel free to skip these if you want.  You won't miss much.

When I was in rehab, my OT (Raheleh, if you're a long-time reader) was pretty adamant that I should avoid using tools whenever possible.  I think her attitude was that if I learn to do something by using a tool, it will be very difficult to ever learn to do that thing without that tool.  The less tools you need, the more independent you'll be.

I think that's a good theory, and I agree with it in principle, but tool use is what separates us from the animals, and our entire society is built on the use of tools, so why shouldn't we participate?  We should, and I do.

The tool I use far more than any other is my lap tray.  I literally do not know how I could survive without it.  I suspect I would starve to death.

The reality of being in a manual wheelchair is that you need both hands to move.  If you're holding something in one hand, the most you can hope to do is go in a circle.  Realistically, you can't even go a few feet holding one thing.  If that thing is easily spillable, or if, God forbid, you have TWO things, you're completely stuck.  And don't even get me started about slight inclines.

So if you want to move anything from one place to another, you have to put it in the only place available to you: your lap.  This is okay if the thing you're transporting is not easily spilled.  A closed water bottle can be braced between your thighs, but remember that you cannot use your thighs to squeeze the item, nor can you feel when it starts to fall over, so this can still be tricky.  And what if the item is hot and spillable?  This would be extremely dangerous with an open mug of hot coffee.

What if you want to move a plate of food?  You might be able to balance the plate on one of your thighs, but that's going to be pretty precarious, and your thigh is pretty slippery.  What if the plate is hot?  What if your thighs aren't level?

Depending on how you sit in your wheelchair, your thighs may slope forward or back.  Due to my HO, for a long time I couldn't sit upright in my chair, and I was slouched down.  My thighs sloped down toward the knee fairly dramatically, so anything I put on my lap would slide immediately onto the floor.

These are very serious problems that you never think about until you get yourself paralyzed.  So how do we solve it?  My solution is a lap tray.

I developed my solution over several months with help from Gus.  I will spare you the design progression.  I think it's interesting, but this post is already pretty long.  I'm not sure the tray is perfect yet, but it's pretty good.

The finished product

I wanted something with sides that were tall to help prevent things from falling off, and that could contain a small spill if one occurred in transit.  I found a tray I liked at Target, but the top surface was slippery, and anything I put on it would slide all over the place.  Because my lap was sloped downward, that meant it would slide to the front of the tray and cause the tray to fall off my lap.  The bottom of the tray was also quite slippery, so the whole tray slid off my lap quite easily.

To solve the first problem, I sanded the top surface of the tray with 400 grit sandpaper and then sprayed it with a product called Plasti Dip.  It's a rubberized coating that you spray on tool handles to protect them and make them grippy.  You can get it at the hardware store near the spray paint I believe.  This created a nice smooth grippy surface that dishes won't slide on.  It's also pretty easy to wipe up.

Some of the things I used to modify my lap tray

Next, I needed to level the tray on my lap.  I did this with shim sticks.  Gus actually made them for me.  At most major hardware stores, you can buy fancy poplar boards 2-1/2" inches wide in a variety of thicknesses from 1/4" up to 1".  Gus used these to create a selection of shim sticks for me so I can change them out to adjust the angle of the tray.  This was especially important when the HO was bad because I slouched down in the chair a different amount on different days.  We cut the boards 15" long, and made them out of poplar because it's lightweight.  Gus sanded them and put a couple coats of polyurethane on them to keep me from getting splinters.  He also stained them to make them look pretty.

I only really use the first 3 or 4 sizes between 1/4" and 1" thick

The finished boards will level the tray, but they are still pretty slippery, so I used some self-adhesive rubber weather stripping to create a grip strip on each board that won't slide on my leg.  I don't trust the adhesive on the strips so I also hit each strip with a staple gun to make sure it can't fall off.

I attach the boards to the bottom of the tray using industrial strength Velcro.  I used to use this stuff to attach my lap timer to my race motorcycle, and it is STRONG.  You can get it at a hardware store or probably Walmart.

Put the soft side of the velcro on the tray so it doesn't stick to your pants if you don't use a shim stick

The only thing I'm not crazy about on the tray is the Plasti Dip coating on the inside.  It nicks easily and will start to peel off in sections.  It's really not much of a problem, and when it gets bad enough, you can just peel the rest off and respray.  It peels off pretty easily if you pick at it.  I would prefer a more permanent solution, but this works well enough until I think of something better.

So that's my tray.  It's how I get food from the kitchen to the dining room every day.  I love it and I honestly don't know what I'd do without it.