Ms. Bondi saw photos of costumes that other parents of children with disabilities made, but she felt intimidated by the elaborate projects.
This year, he is going to be a “samurai dragon,” with a ninja outfit for him and a dragon costume for his wheelchair.
Finding the right Halloween costume for Julian Boose, a 6-year-old with Snijders Blok-Fisher syndrome, can be complicated.
When they all dressed up as superheroes, Julian’s cape was hitched to the back of his pajama shirt with Velcro instead of an irritating tie around his neck.
Molly Molenaur said her 7-year-old son, Miles, relies on structure to put some steadiness in his life when so much can seem overwhelming or uncertain.
Instead, Ms. Molenaur turned her son into “Light Up Boy” last year, by sewing LED light strips into a zip-up onesie.
On a whim, Laura Walker sent an application to the nonprofit Magic Wheelchair in 2017, but assumed she would never hear back.
Just two years later, the group replied and offered to make over then-8-year-old Kendall’s wheelchair with a “My Little Pony” theme — with Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie pulling her chair-turned-chariot down the street.
Now 10, Kendall has outgrown her Pony obsession, Ms. Walker said; she’s more interested in dressing up like the Korean pop stars from Blackpink.
Since then, they have spent each fall gearing up for their son’s Halloween costume, running back and forth to the craft store and spending nights tinkering in their garage with heaps of fabric and felt.
The effort is more than worth it, they said, because Halloween is something their son can “participate in all the way.” When Stellan goes to school in costume, “it makes the other kids almost want to be him,” Mr. Delroy said.
Ayah Young’s 8-year-old son Coltrane was born with Joubert syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that kept him in and out of hospitals for the first years of his life.
The highlight of the holiday may have been the reactions from other children who seemed genuinely jealous of Coltrane’s costumes, Ms. Young said.
The costumes often take weeks to make — crafted a bit at a time, night by night, until she has a finished product.
Mr. Kuehn had placed a sputtering toy siren by his family’s dining table to accompany a cardboard police car that could slide over Jacob’s wheelchair.
While adaptive Halloween costumes are becoming more and more commonplace, he said, he still struggles to find creative options for Jacob and to plan his son’s costume on top of those for his 9-year-old and 12-year-old daughters.