The Right Equipment: Special Needs Solutions Builds Tools to Help Disabled

By Tom Leyde

Special Needs Solutions helps Southern Arizona’s disabled citizens live better lives every day.

The nonprofit, started in 2018 by executive director David Gordon, creates equipment at its shop at 4555 S. Palo Verde Road, Suite 131.

It was honored for its efforts at the ninth annual Social Venture Partners Fast Pitch Tucson event Mar. 26 at Fox Tucson Theatre. The group won the $10,000 Tucson Electric Power’s Power to the People Award, voted on by audience members.

Special Needs Solutions also received the $10,000 Judge’s Award, the $5,000 Anne Maley & Tim Schaffner Innovative Solutions Award and the $2,000 Steve Goulding Celebration of Life Award, for a total of $27,000.

“It’s very gratifying,” Gordon said. “I very much appreciate that they appreciate what we bring to the community.”

Just what does the nonprofit make?

“At the moment, we are adapting a saddle for a young woman with cerebral palsy who wants to ride horses,” said Gordon. A back support and straps will allow that to happen.

For a boy who likes to make music on a keyboard but could only pummel it hard, the crew made a plexiglass case for the keyboard so he can pound on it and not destroy it.

Another woman with cerebral palsy operates a communication device with her toes. A special chair was made that reclines, making it easier for her to operate the device. 

Environmental adaptations, habilitation equipment, sensory equipment and positioning equipment are all within the realm of Special Needs Solutions. Gordon is the only paid employee. The work is mainly done by some 20 volunteers and the group only charges for materials. The overhead is paid for through donations and grants.

Special Needs Solutions has a 2,500-square-foot building. “Everything is made right here,” Gordon said. “We have a big sewing shop, varnishing shop, wood shop, electronic shop and we do some welding too.”

“It’s a dream come true,” Gordon, 73, said of his position as executive director. “I am blessed to be able to be involved with this. Every day, all we do is help people have a somewhat better life. People can’t believe it when they ask the price (of a special item),” he said. “Often, they just burst into tears. It happens almost every day here.”

Originally from Lancaster, Calif., Gordon earned a master’s degree in marriage, family and child counseling at the University of California Santa Cruz. He spent 40 years as a psychologist and psychotheraptist, traveling the world conducting seminars. He also taught elementary school for a time.

“I like to make things and fix things and I could not help and fix kids in class every day,” he said. So, he started building and remodeling houses. Eventually, he met Rhonda Chance at the Arizona Office of Development for Disabilities in Tucson.

Chance started a program called the Adaptation Station, adapting equipment for the disabled. It grew and Gordon joined the program. After 26 years, Chance retired and Gordon took over. But the station closed in April 2018 after Arizona’s Developmental Disabilities Division cut funding and limited what it could provide for adults and children living with different challenges.

That’s when Gordon decided to create Special Needs Solutions, taking the state program’s volunteers with him.

His brother, a lawyer, convinced him it wouldn’t be that much trouble to start a nonprofit. “It’s the best thing I ever did in my life,’ Gordon said. “I enjoy my life. I think it’s amazing now.”

“Now we make whatever we want for whoever we want,” Gordon said. “We’re free to take on any equipment challenge that people need.”

People seeking special equipment for the disabled can call or write Special Needs Solutions, Gordon said. Requests come from families and from occupational and physical therapists.

“There’s some things that take more trial and error and some things that take more time,” Gordon said. “For us, it’s just a challenge and we figure it out. … If it’s difficult, then it’s a pleasure, because then we get to say, ‘OK, how do we do this?’”

Pictured above – David Gordon, Executive Director, Special Needs Solutions