How to Get Dressed When You Can’t Stand

There are a lot of things you can’t do when you can no longer stand or walk. Skipping is definitely one of these things. Getting dressed on your own however is one thing you can do, and it can be done well. It just takes a little bit of practice and a handful of panache.

In spinal cord injury terms, anyone with a spinal cord injury from the C6 level and below should be able to do it. We’re not saying it’s easy. In fact, getting dressed is one of the hardest things to relearn post-injury. Knowing the tricks that are out there are huge in learning how to do this as well.

To help you with your getting-dressed journey, here are three videos sharing some awesome tips.

Video #1: Newbie Keisha unties, takes off shoes

Something as simple as taking off your shoes can be a monumental task when you have a C5-6 level injury like Keisha. She was injured less than two years ago and has been putting many things about her life online.

In his video Keisha demonstrates how she can untie her shoes and take them off on her own and without any finger movement. As you watch, you can tell she struggles a bit, but if you make it to the end you will see that success is had.

Watch: Untying & taking off my shoes, C5-6 Quadriplegic 18 year old Keisha Mastrodimos

Video #2: Using tilt and recline to pulls up pants

In a brilliant move by Brandon Stone, a paraplegic, he demonstrates how he can pull his pants up while in a powerchair by using tilt and recline, two electronic auxiliaries available for power wheelchairs that help with positioning.

After using a reacher to pull on his pants over his feet and calves, he goes into deep recline mode; the best position to be in to pull up his pants independently, and you’ll see it totally works. It’s great seeing gravity thwarted in such a smart way.

Watch: Getting dressed in a wheelchair

Video #3: Hollywood-style strong para shows how it’s done

And in a video from Mike Fatty, a low level paraplegic who loves making videos showing how he does things, he demonstrates how he’s able to change his pants while staying in his manual wheelchair, and it’s all about pressure relief lifts.

He also shares a few awesome tips, like making sure you have plenty of slack under your thighs before lifting up your butt when pulling up your pants. This will help you get your pants up on the first try.

Watch: How to change your pants in a wheelchair

The hallmark of having a spinal cord injury is that things in life that were once easy are no longer the case, and dressing is definitely one of them. We hope these videos have at least enlightened you, and maybe even given you hope that one day that you too will be able to get dressed again one day on your own.

Which tricks help you get dressed?

Watch the videos!

– Newbie C5-6 quad Keisha shows he she takes off her shoes

– Quadriplegic uses tilt and recline on his wheelchair to help dress himself

– Paraplegic shows how he can change his pants while still in his wheelchair