30 Crafts For Adults With Disabilities

Hello readers, today I’ll be covering a significant amount of ground for those looking to find suitable crafts for adults with disabilities. Crafting is a fun and therapeutic activity that is an all-inclusive pastime. Regardless of age, skill level, and ability, there are crafts and activities out there that allow you to express your creativity! With many factors to consider when it comes to crafts for adults with disabilities, I will be providing plenty of options to try. These craft ideas range from simple and soothing to more complex creations.

Keep in mind that every craft is different, and not every craft type may be what you’re looking for, so it’s okay if there are some on the list that do not work for you or someone you know. This list is to help provide ideas for you so that you can have a wide variety of choices and options to work with.

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#1. Yarn Wrapping

Yarn wrapping is a simple and fun activity that involves wrapping colorful yarn around wood, cardboard pieces, or other materials.

You wrap the colorful yarn around until the surface is entirely covered. This is great for making ornaments and decorations of all kinds.

These are suitable crafts for adults with disabilities looking to create tactile art with a pleasant feel. This activity stimulates creativity and utilizes motor skills.

#2. Fabric Collages

Making fabric collages is a multi-sensory experience. You have the visual of the colorful fabrics and the touch and feel of many kinds of material.

Pre-cut or cut and arrange fabric squares by gluing them down and/or placing them onto a surface. You can do this on paper, cardboard, or any other surface, such as wood.

This helps with cognitive skills and motor skills as well. The artist utilizes these skills by selecting the fabric, arranging the material into a design, and problem-solving to fit them together.

#3. Button Art

For this craft, you can take any assortment of colored buttons and glue them onto a surface to create a unique design. Use different sizes and styles to make fun and colorful artwork.

This is a great tactile craft that uses fine motor skills. Glue with Elmer’s glue or hot glue, depending on the scope of the project. You can opt to glue the buttons onto canvas or paper.

#4. Stenciling

Stenciling is a fun way to make detailed designs using plastic, metal, or cardboard templates. This craft is fun for all ages and can be used for many creative customizations.

Stencils are accessible crafts for adults with disabilities of many kinds. The stencils can come in many shapes, sizes, and pictures. With stencils, the artist can achieve highly detailed and precise images without frustration.

#5. Sand Art

Sand art is a fun and often therapeutic craft for all ages and many skill levels. You create sand art by layering colorful sand into plastic or glass bottles, jars, or containers before sealing them.

To get the sand into the appropriate container, you can use spoons for fine motor manipulation or funnels to make the craft even more accessible.

#6. Leaf Rubbings

For a craft with a touch of nature inspiration, you can use lovely leaves to create rubbings or etchings. All you have to do is find a beautiful leaf with details.

The fresher, the better. Dried leaves are not optimal because they crumble and fall apart. Take a fresh leaf, or several, put it under the paper, and shade over it with a pencil or crayon. This will yield a lovely intricate piece of artwork that displays the structure of the leaf.

#7. Stamping

Stamping is a beautiful and accessible craft you create by dipping a rubber, acrylic, or wooden stamp into ink from an inkpad and placing it onto a surface.

This is a popular craft for all ages and skill levels, as it is versatile and requires minimal materials while still offering a high level of creativity. This craft can be used to make scrapbooks, papercrafts, and cards.

#8. Rock Painting

This is one of my favorites as it is enjoyable, and you can do it however you see fit. All you need are clean rocks and some painting tools.

Painted rocks make great gifts, garden decor, and keepsakes. Painted rocks are among the best crafts for adults with disabilities because they can accommodate any skill level and turn out beautifully. I have written a blog post on rock painting if you are interested in tutorials and supplies for this craft.

#9. Felt Crafts

Felt is a beautiful tactile art medium that is soft to the touch and brightly colored. You can cut felt into any shape, and it’s great because it can stick to itself.

You can do so many amazing things with felt. You can cut out bookmarks, use large sheets together to make a posterboard, or even glue or sew it, depending on the individual skill level.

#10. Sensory Bottles

Sensory bottles are great crafts for adults with disabilities because there is something for everyone. Each sensory bottle can be tailored to the needs of the individual making them.

You can incorporate objects inside that make sounds, are visually appealing, and you can touch and shake the bottle for a tactile experience.

#11. Tie-Dye

Tie-dying is a fun experience, although this craft may require some assistance. Overall this craft is moderately simple and better for those looking for a bit of challenge while still doing something accessible.

The idea of tie-dying is to fold the fabric into a desired shape, typically held in place by rubber bands or wraps. Then dip the cloth into the colored dye and/or drizzle it onto the fabric with a bottle.

By doing this, the folded areas will resist the coloring while the rest gains new color. This will give unique and colorful effects to your fabric while making a beautiful design in the process. You can find kits for this in stores or on Amazon.

#12. Marble Painting

Marble painting is something unique that many have never tried before. The idea is to dip marbles into different paint colors, put them in a box with a piece of paper, and then roll them around.

This is easy to do, and you don’t need careful coordination. Therefore, this is one of the best crafts for adults with disabilities.

#13. Footprint/Handprint Art

This craft is great because it is accessible to many. All you need to do is paint or dip your hand/foot into paint and stamp it onto canvas to make any artwork you want. Like many crafts, this may require a little assistance depending on the individual, but the creative aspect is up to the artist.

The painting can be as simple as the print or as complex as making animals or shapes using prints.

#14. Macrame

I highly recommend macrame for individuals looking for a challenge but wanting to try something with simple steps. Macrame, the art of knot tieing, is fun, creative, and beautiful!

Macrame art can be made into keychains; wall hangs, and decor. This is a great tactile art form due to the fabric’s different feel. It also helps with hand-eye coordination.

#15. Scrapbooking

Scrapbooking is one of the most fun and essential crafts for adults with disabilities. Scrapbooking is important because with it, they can save and store memories from their lives to remember important events, people, and places.

This can be a fun craft and a critical and helpful tool for those with disabilities that affect memory.

#16. Greeting Cards

Greeting cards are great crafts to make for holidays or special occasions. You can add embellishments of all kinds, such as ribbons, gems, and pictures.

Make them to send to relatives or close friends to keep in touch. All you need to get started is cardstock and some decorations, markers, or pencils.

#17. Stress Balls

Stress balls are easy to make and are one of the best crafts for adults with disabilities due to the functionality of the craft as well.

Fill up a balloon or zippable bean bag with beans, rice, or sand, depending on what you are filling. I would not recommend filling something with a loose knit with small objects or sand as it might come out.

You can also use socks to fill with rice to create a stress ball and draw on it with a marker if it is white.

#18. Clay Modeling

Clay modeling is an enjoyable and creative craft medium to use. It sparks imagination and is a tactile art form. Clay is a multi-sensory craft as you can touch, smell, and see the clay.

Clay comes in so many colors. The sky is the limit when it comes to making things out of it. You can make figures, collectibles, jewelry, and decor of all kinds with modeling clay.

#19. Popsicle Stick Houses

Making structures out of popsicle sticks is a fun craft and pastime. It is also inexpensive and an excellent way to express creativity.

You may need some supervision to help with gluing, depending on the individual needs of the crafter.

#20. Pipe Cleaner Figures

Pipe cleaner figures are another fun way to express creativity and spark the imagination. You can craft many figures out of pipe cleaners, which is also fun and inexpensive.

Simple pipe cleaners can make animals, people, clothes, and more. This is one of the most versatile crafts for adults with disabilities.

#21. Pom Pom Keychains

Pom Pom keychains are simple yet functional crafts. You can make them in several ways. You can glue a premade pom to a string and hook it to a keychain or wrap your very own with yarn.

These can even be made to be sold or gifted to friends and family. This craft may take a little bit of supervision, but it is achievable overall for many.

#22. DIY Bookmarks

DIY bookmarks can be made with many different things. You can wrap yarn around cardboard, decorate cardstock, or fold paper to be a beautiful DIY bookmark.

Bookmarks are functional for adults who love to read or who are looking for a gift to give to someone who reads.

#23. Melted Bead Art

This is an excellent craft for adults. Preheat an oven or portable oven to a designated temperature and melt beads into a mold or cookie cutter on a sheet. You can arrange the colors in any way you like.

A craft involving an oven may require some assistance for the crafter depending on their abilities, but this craft can be used to make many beautiful artworks.

I suggest using beads designed for melting rather than just any beads. The reason is that these beads are more predictable and easier to bake and melt. Remember that melting plastic of any kind puts out a bit of fumes, so only do this in well-ventilated kitchens or outdoors.

#24. DIY Coasters

Using a sheet of cork or posterboard, you can trace around a cup and cut out a circle to fit. Make sure that you outline the larger end of the cup.

Decorate the circle coaster with markers or glitter. Seal with triple thick or other sealers to protect the artwork. These can range from elaborate to simple and make excellent decor and gifts.

#25. Shell Painting

You can get shells inexpensively from Dollar Tree and paint them with acrylic Crayola paint for a beautiful decor or keepsake. These make lovely decorations and can be used for other projects as well.

You can even glue the painted shells together to make a picture frame!

#26. DIY Bird Feeders

DIY bird feeders are one of the best crafts for adults with disabilities because it not only provides an eco-friendly way to feed birds but to connect with nature as well.

You can easily use repurposed toilet paper cardboard rolls to cover in peanut butter and roll into birdseed or use recycled plastic bottles to fill. You can even develop your own creative spin, depending on the bird population in your area.

#27. Gardening

While this isn’t exactly a physical craft, it does provide an excellent and creative outlet for adults and individuals with disabilities to find ways to care for the environment and grow their own plants and food.

Gardening is known to be a therapeutic activity that many can enjoy. Some may need assistance with their gardening, but this offers an excellent opportunity for getting outdoors and doing something meaningful at the same time.

#28. Flower Pressing

Flower pressing is a quiet and meditative activity that allows the crafter to collect and save beautiful flowers for creative use. The flowers that are saved can be put into a picture frame or even used in other crafts.

This is another beautiful craft that helps individuals connect to nature and do something with educational and artistic value.

#29. Soap Making

Soap making has a lot of room for creativity. While this craft may require supervision, there are easy ways to do this, such as using melt-and-pour soap.

If you get a melt-and-pour kit, all you have to do is melt the soap on the stove or even safe in the microwave, add scent, and then pour the liquid soap into a mold to dry. This activity can delight the smell sense and be highly relaxing.

#30. DIY Tote Bag

DIY tote bags are fun to make and are also functional to carry things in and use on a daily basis. That is why I think they are one of the best crafts for adults with disabilities.

You only need some fabric paint or markers to decorate a blank tote bag. Tote bag blanks are often sold inexpensively in the craft section of many retailers, such as Dollar Tree.

I hope you find a craft suitable to you or someone you know!

I made this list as a helpful guideline to spark ideas for crafts for those looking for something new to try or for someone you know or care for.

If you are looking for a specific tutorial or something not covered by this post, feel free to comment or message me through my contact button. I’d be happy to help cover topics or crafts not mentioned in future posts.

You may also like to check out some of my other posts that you may find helpful.

Click here to see the 11 top crafts for special needs adults.

or

Click here 13 best sensory toys for autistic toddlers.