Button Aid and Zipper Pull

Fine motor tasks like buttoning and zipping became distinctively challenging for Cindy after losing her fingers. Daily living aids like the button aid and zipper pull are designed to help people perform these tasks, and they are commonly used by people with tremors related to Parkinson’s disease or reduced mobility due to arthritis.

Cindy doesn’t quite remember where she got this tool, but she thinks she received it from the rehabilitation hospital where she did months of physical and occupational therapy. But she says she never really used it, and has given up on buttons and zippers at this point. “I am not buying things with buttons and zippers now, and if I have things from before with those, Ken [her husband] helps me.” She says she doesn’t have sufficient hand movement and grasping for the push or pull required for buttoning, or the grasping for zippering. “It was more work than it was worth. If I lived alone, it would be a different story. But now I just ask Ken for help if I need to.”

“Getting dressed is really hard. In the beginning, just getting my pants on in the morning would take 5-7 minutes. I needed a nap after I got dressed. I’m not joking. I’d come downstairs and take a 15-minute power nap before eating breakfast and reading the newspaper.”

Also pictured here is a zippered flowered purse. Cindy does have a few things with zippers that she still wants to use, and for some she attaches cable ties. On this one, Cindy has attached a metal linked key chain with a clear plastic fob to the zipper pull to make it more accessible.