How This Phone Mount Finally Allowed Me to Use a Smartphone From My Wheelchair

Improvisation has been a part of my life—and of every disabled person I know—since as early as I can remember. When I was a baby, my mom positioned my bottle in the arms of my stuffed panda bear for me to drink from because I couldn’t hold it myself. As a child, I ate off a spice rack that rotated like a lazy Susan, with the food neatly lined up along the rim. Now that I am an adult living alone in New York City, these hacks—the ribbon tied to my doorknob that I use to pull my door shut, the metal straw I use to turn on the light switch and adjust the thermostat, the cat toy I use to pick things up off the floor—are so much a part of my life that I barely think about them.