You may have heard of the National AgrAbility Project. They help farmers with disabilities or physical challenges by making modifications that are tailor-made to their farm equipment and buildings so they can keep working. It’s an organization that was started by Dr. Bill Field at Purdue University in 1979.
AgrAbility has a booth at the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville at the Kentucky Exposition Center. You’ll find them in the South Wing at Booth 6308.
“That’s what we’re here to do. Whatever that individual’s disability is—and we do work with a full range, whether it’s very visible things like a spinal cord injury where somebody uses a wheelchair to do those things we can’t see, but may have a huge impact on that individual’s life and their ability to work and do what they want to do,” says Ed Sheldon with Purdue Extension, who also works extensively on behalf of AgrAbility.
He says he and his team do a lot of work to help older farmers as well.
“The average age of farmers in Indiana and across the country is about 57 or 58 years old, and that brings on those problems. We slow down. We don’t move like we used to. But, farmers aren’t very good at retiring either, so they want to keep going into their 70’s, 80’s—even beyond because we also work with folks in their 90’s,” he says.
Sheldon adds that being at the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville gives AgrAbility a great deal of exposure about the program and their services.
“We end up having a lot of folks that say, ‘My dad or my neighbor that could really maybe benefit from those services.’ That gives us the opportunity to do a little education because a lot of folks maybe aren’t aware that of some of the issues and the challenges that disabled or physically challenged farmers might face,” says Sheldon.
To learn more about AgrAbility—or to make your monetary donation to help contribute to their program—visit AgrAbility.org.
