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Halloween Costumes for People Using a Wheelchair

By: Amy Wilson

There are many tips and hints for people using wheelchairs who want to dress up for Halloween, where your wheelchair not only complements your costume, but can become the centerpiece of it as well. Here are ideas for both children and adults who want to wow people on Halloween night.

Halloween Ideas for Children
Fred Flinstone One great idea for kids who love their Saturday morning cartoons would be to dress up as one of them for Halloween. This Fred Flintstone costume allows your child to dress up as one of their favorite cartoon characters, and uses their wheelchair to enhance the costume. By using the wheelchair as part of the costume, your child not only gets to dress up as Fred Flintstone, but also gets to ride around in his car too.

Drummer Another costume that utilizes the wheelchair to make it unique is a drummer costume where the wheelchair becomes the drum-set. Someone else may show up at your party dressed as a drummer, but will they have their own drum set? I think not.

Aladdin For Disney fans, Aladdin makes a perfect costume for Halloween night. In this creation the wheelchair is used to make it appear as if you are flying on Aladdin's magic carpet.

Flower garden For those with a green thumb, this website offers instructions on how to make a costume where you have your very own mobile bed-of-flowers, and you are one of the flowers blooming in the garden. To see the mobile bed-of-flowers costume made, click here.

For any girls who are Disney fans, this Cinderella outfit allows you to ride around in your very own magical coach all night and makes the perfect costume for any trick-or-treater.

John Deere Costume For any trick-or-treater who was planning on dressing up as a farmer, this costume offers something even better. Why not go with your very own tractor as well? This article gives step-by-step instructions on how to become a farmer operating a John Deere tractor as a costume for your Halloween night.

Halloween Ideas for Adults
Everyone recognizes Professor X from the popular X-men series, so why not dress up as him on Halloween night? To replicate this costume all you need to do is dress in a simple suit and tie and use a latex bald cap to cover your hair and you are ready to go as Professor X.

Artie from Glee If you are a fan of the popular TV show Glee, why not spend Halloween night dressed as Artie? Mimicking this Gleester is easy enough to do. Make sure you have a pair of black horn-rimmed glasses handy as well as a white-collared shirt and an argyle vest to wear over it. Also, don't forget to wear a pair of Artie's signature driving gloves to complete the look.

For those of you who are a fan of the cult class Dr. Strangelove, the title character, Dr. Strangelove, makes a perfect costume for Halloween night. All you need to complete this look is an all-black suit, lightly-tinted sunglasses, and one black leather glove and you are all set.

For anyone who saw Avatar this year, Jake Sully, the wheelchair-user hero of the movie, makes a perfect Halloween costume for anyone looking to dress up as a character from this blockbuster. A simple t-shirt and a set of dog-tags are all that you need to pass as this character from Avatar.

Tiffany Carlson as Jessica Rabbit For even more Halloween costumes idea, one blogger, Tiffiny Carlson, writes about her different Halloween costumes over the years and provides insight on how she has dealt with finding costumes while using a wheelchair. She shows how not all costumes utilize the wheelchair (but still look great) and that there are some benefits to dressing up in a wheelchair, such as when she got to live out her childhood dream of dressing up as Jessica Rabbit. Whether you choose to mimic one of Carlson's ideas or not, she will surely inspire you to get creative with your own costume this year.

The ArcThe Arc is the world’s largest community based organization of and for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. It provides an array of services and support for families and individuals and includes over 140,000 members affiliated through more than 850 state and local chapters across the nation. The Arc is devoted to promoting and improving supports and services for all people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Alliance for Parent CentersThe Technical Assistance ALLIANCE for Parent Centers (the ALLIANCE) is an innovative partnership of one national and six regional parent technical assistance centers, each funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP). These seven projects comprise a unified technical assistance system for the purpose of developing, assisting, and coordinating the over 100 Parent Training and Information Centers (PTIs) and Community Parent Resource Centers (CPRCs) under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The national and regional parent technical assistance centers work to strengthen the connections to the larger OSEP Technical Assistance and Dissemination Network and fortify partnerships between Parent Centers and education systems at local, state, and national levels.

Ability OnLineA computer friendship network where children and youth with disabilities or chronic illnesses connect to each other as well as to friends, family members, caregivers and supporters.

All Kids Can!A disabilities awareness program that helps students of all ages learn attitudes of acceptance, dignity and respect, especially toward those with disabilities.

A Reeve Foundation Fact Sheet on Children's and Teen Books (PDF)

Council for Exceptional ChildrenThe Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) is the largest international professional organization dedicated to improving the educational success of individuals with disabilities and/or gifts and talents. CEC advocates for appropriate governmental policies, sets professional standards, provides professional development, advocates for individuals with exceptionalities, and helps professionals obtain conditions and resources necessary for effective professional practice.

Camp Ronald McDonaldA fully accessible residential camp for kids with special needs located in the high Sierra.

Easter SealsEaster Seals provides exceptional services, education, outreach, and advocacy so that people living with autism and other disabilities can live, learn, work and play in our communities.

Education Resources Information Center (ERIC)ERIC - the Education Resources Information Center - is an online digital library of education research and information. ERIC is sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) of the U.S. Department of Education. ERIC provides ready access to education literature to support the use of educational research and information to improve practice in learning, teaching, educational decision-making, and research.

Family Voices Family Voices Information and Publications, and links to external resources can be located in a number of different ways. All of our materials are categorized by topic (format and audience coming soon) on the publications page. You may also use the "Search FV" Tool in the left column to find materials by keyword. Some materials are available for download, some for viewing online, and others are available by hardcopy only from our catalog. State specific information may be found by contacting a Family Voices State Network Member. Please contact the kidshealth@familyvoices.org if you require any assistance.

Island Dolphin CareAllows children to swim and play with dolphins.

Family Center on technology and DisabilityThe Family Center is a resource designed to support organizations and programs that work with families of children and youth with disabilities. We offer a range of information and services on the subject of assistive technologies. Whether you're an organization, a parent, an educator, or an interested friend, we hope you'll find information that supports you in your efforts to bring the highest quality education to children with disabilities.

KidsComSite has plenty of games, message boards, kids chat, video game cheats, contests and prizes.

National information Clearinghouse for Children and Youth with Disabilities INICHCY) NICHCY is very pleased to offer you a wealth of information on disabilities! NICHCY stands for the National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities.

National Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center (NECTAC) Our mission: To strengthen service systems to ensure that children with disabilities (birth through 5 years) and their families receive and benefit from high quality, culturally appropriate and family-centered supports and services.

Parents Helping Parents (PHP) Parents Helping Parents (PHP) provides lifetime guidance, supports and services to families of children with any special need and the professionals who serve them.Parents Helping Parents (PHP) provides lifetime guidance, supports and services to families of children with any special need and the professionals who serve them.

Parent Advocacy Coalition for Educational Rights (PACER) The mission of PACER Center (Parent Advocacy Coalition for Educational Rights) is to expand opportunities and enhance the quality of life of children and young adults with disabilities and their families, based on the concept of parents helping parents.

The Sibling Support Project The Sibling Support Project is a national effort dedicated to the life-long concerns of brothers and sisters of people who have special health, developmental, or mental health concerns.

Shriners Hospitals Children up to the age of 18 with orthopaedic conditions, burns, spinal cord injuries and cleft lip and palate are eligible for admission and receive all care in a family-centered environment at no charge – regardless of financial need.

Starlight Foundation for ChildrenDevelops multi-media and technology projects that empower seriously ill children to deal with the medical and emotional challenges they face on a daily basis.

U Can DoA site that emphasizes what you can do, not what you can’t. Promotes ‘ability awareness’ to help kids focus on what is possible, regardless of their challenges.

YahooligansBig list of links for all sorts of kids’ sites, including tons of places to go for games, sports, TV and movie stuff.

Quality of Life Grants DatabaseFind resources within the PRC Quality of Life Grants Database. Search by Zip Code, State or an Entire Category.

Library Books and VideosFind resources within the PRC library catalog.

Check out programs in your area on our one-of-a kind online searchable Quality of Life program database. You can search by location or topic. GO

The information provided in the Paralysis Resource Center was supported by Cooperative Agreement number 1U59DD000838-01 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the Reeve Foundation and do not necessarily represent the official views of the CDC.