Adaptive costumes from Whitworth students and Arc of Spokane make Halloween inclusive to all

SPOKANE, Wash. — The Arc of Spokane and students from Whitworth University teamed up to create adaptive Halloween costumes for kids with wheelchairs so they can enjoy all the trick-or-treating fun.

Zoe Osborne has developmental disabilities which have required her to use a wheelchair since 2016. With her new Anna costume from Disney’s Frozen and adaptive sleigh, she stole the show at Arc as she went office to office trick or treating.

The sleigh costume allowed her to still be able to maneuver around in her wheelchair by herself.

Zoe’s mom Darci Ladwig said she hasn’t been able to dress up like this in years.

“I think being able to incorporate her wheelchair into her costume just made a huge difference,” Ladwig said. “She’s never been able to do this before and we love it.”

The Arc is a local organization that helps those with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

“Whitworth reached out to us and asked if 25 students could come volunteer for a couple of hours. One of my co-workers has a son who uses a wheelchair and she thought it would be a good idea to make these wheelchair costumes,” said Tami Leitz, the parent-to-parent coordinator at Arc.

The university students then got to work. They used cardboard and paint to make Zoe’s sleigh and other adaptive costumes like a cartoon garbage truck and a fisherman’s boat.

Zoe said her favorite part of her entire costume was the sleigh, which had her name written in big letters on the back.

For Ember Havner, a first-year student at Whitworth, this project was extra special.

“As someone that has a few invisible disabilities, I have my service dog and I’m slowly learning to accept the fact that I’m disabled. But these are kids, they’ve only known this way or they were recently put in that situation and they still deserve to be kids. Part of being a kid is dressing up,” Havner said. “I think it needs to be more accessible, but it makes me so happy that I was able to be part of making it more accessible for these kids.”