Reflecting on the ‘Eureka Moment’ and the Disability Community
By Rick Rader, MD, FAAIDD, FAADM, Editor-in-chief, Helen Journal
Like most people I’m a creature of habit.
I have my routines and my rituals. My morning ritual is enjoying a cappuccino and checking out the New York Times Obituary Section.
Since 1851, more than 200,000 people have been the subject of obituaries in The New York. While they obviously cover the most famous individuals, they have a knack for paying tribute to “ordinary” people who have lived the most “extraordinary” lives. Many of the subjects are the stuff that movie producers would race to the front of the line to get the movie rights.
This morning I read about Ed Smylie (Ed Smylie, Who Saved the Apollo 13 Crew with Duct Tape, Dies at 95). According to the obit (written by Michael S. Rosenwald) Smylie was a NASA engineer who led a team of engineers that cobbled together an apparatus made of cardboard, plastic bags and duct tape that saved the Apollo 13 crew in 1970 after an explosion crippled the spacecraft as it sped toward the moon. He was 95.
Without going into too much detail, suffice it so say that Smylie had to figure out a way to connect air filters engineered for two astronauts to supply breathable air to three astronauts. The trouble was the cannisters in the command module were square and the only available additional filter found in the lunar module was round. So how do you fit a square peg in a round hole? Smylie was limited to using the spare material on the spacecraft. After two days of endless configuring of all the possible solutions, it hit him. Duct tape to the rescue. Years later, in an interview Smylie confessed, “If you’re a Southern boy, if it moves and it’s not supposed to, you use duct tape.” It worked and the three astronauts were saved and safely returned to Earth. For Symlie it was a true Eureka moment.
Tudor Trarita writing in ZME Science (May 2025) provides, “People have always revered the ‘Eureka!’ moment – a sudden rush of clarity when a puzzle clicks into place, a long-sought answer blooms into view, a breakthrough.” Science has recently discovered that eureka moments reorganized neural circuits and may help carve insights deep into our long-term memory.
Eureka’s, or the infamous “aha” moments, have changed the course of history.
Archimedes was an Ancient Greek inventor and mathematician born in Sicily around 287 B.C. One day, while taking a leisurely bath, Archimedes noticed the water slapping out of the full tub when he got in. This led him to his “Eureka” moment when he figured out why things float (a great way to get a principle in physics named after yourself—the Archimedes’ Principle).
“The realization that the rights of Americans with disabilities were not being respected, recognized and provided was not done in a ‘Eureka moment’. Those moments are said to appear suddenly, in a burst of enlightenment and in an instant. The “moments” leading up to the ADA were measured in decades not flashes.”
Marie Curie, the most famous female scientist of all time (won two Nobel Prizes) worked in the field of radioactivity. She realized that the source of the mysterious radiation that came from uranium was within the atom itself. According to the BBC, “It was a moment that changed everything; until then, the atom had been thought to be the most elementary, indivisible particle. This “Eureka” led to the invention of the X Ray machines that have saved countless lives.
Another invention, not as lifesaving as Curie’s eureka, but perhaps “lifechanging” was that of Ruth Handler’s “Eureka moment.” In the 1950s, Handler realized that almost all dolls were modelled on babies or children. She noticed that her daughter, Barbara, liked making paper dolls, which she dressed and spoke to as if they were adults. Handler “created” the Barbie doll which are sold in over 150 countries every year to over 60 million girls.
In 1946, another “Eureka moment” was ignited in the brain of Percy Spencer, an engineer working for Raytheon, a military technology company. He was experimenting with a device called a “magnetron” when he noticed that a peanut cluster bar in his pocket had mysteriously melted. Always curious, he put an egg under the device, which exploded. Next he put some popcorn kernels under the machine and satisfyingly, they popped. So, the next time you pop something in your microwave you can connect it to Spencer’s “Eureka.”
In 1666, Issac Newton was sipping tea in his garden and noticed that apples were falling from his tree and fell straight to the ground. He wondered why they fell in that direction, in his “Eureka moment” he conjured up the theory of “gravity.” It was a theory born out of a “Eureka moment” that’s still standing the test of time.
In 1946, George de Mestral an outdoor enthusiast and engineer based in Switzerland, was on a nature walk with his dog where he observed tiny burrs sticking to its fur. He was amazed at the strength of the cockleburs attached to his dog’s fur. His curiosity to replicate this natural mechanism led him to design “Velcro,” changing how we associate closures forever. Certainly a “Eureka moment.”
This July is the month we celebrate the 35th Anniversary of The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), signed into law by then-President George H.W. Bush in 1990, it is the nation’s strongest measure protecting the civil rights of people with disabilities. It bars discrimination based on disability and guarantees equal access to public buildings and businesses, employment opportunities, transportation, telecommunications, commercial facilities, and state and local government services.
The realization that the rights of Americans with disabilities were not being respected, recognized and provided was not done in a “Eureka moment.” Those moments are said to appear suddenly, in a burst of enlightenment and in an instant. The “moments” leading up to the ADA were measured in decades not flashes.
Disability rights activists, drawing inspiration from the civil rights movement, organized protests and sit-ins to demand equal rights and accessibility.
I would be remiss if I didn’t remind HELEN readers that June 16th is Duct Tape Day. This day encourages people to use duct tape for various repairs and projects. The “disability community” has long appreciated the role of duct tape to helping to keep things going for people with disabilities.
While we always strive to provide the state-of-the-art equipment and devices for individuals with novel challenges, sometimes in a pinch it’s duct tape to the rescue.
We see duct tape being used to secure utensils in floppy hands with low grip strength. A strip of tape can secure spoons, forks, drumsticks, crayons, flashlights, toothbrushes, hairbrushes, maracas, cowbells and tambourines. It’s the original “enabling technology.” While most people identify duct tape with its traditional silver color, it comes in over 20 colors and a variety of trendy pattens and designs, thus the individual can choose their favorites. Duct tape is a blessing in the temporary repair of wheelchairs, seating, orthotics, computer screen stands and virtually everything that at times calls attention to “special needs.” We also have used duct tape instead of belts to hold pants up and even used to position adult incontinence garments.
On a daily basis we see direct support professionals (DSPs) having “Eureka moments” and reaching for duct tape or anything else that will fill the gap—including new ideas, new approaches, new beliefs and new levels of care.
So, on behalf of the staff at HELEN, we celebrate both the Anniversary of the ADA and the ingenuity of those who make things happen.
I just realized that two years after I secured a plastic cup holder with a four-inch strip of black duct tape (color coordinated to match the car’s interior), it’s still in place.
Rick Rader, MD, FAAIDD, FAADM, Editor-in-chief, Helen Journal