How Can the Fashion Industry Better Serve People with Disabilities?

Finding something to wear can be especially challenging for people with limited dexterity or mobility, but some fashion designers are starting to change that. Learn how in this episode of BrainStuff.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works, Hey, brain
Stuff Lauren Vogelbaum here. The fashion industry has some catching
up to do when it comes to considering people with disabilities.
That's according to the results of a recent study which
surveyed a hundred and thirteen people with mobility impairments. The
findings showed that about half of the respondents were unable

(00:22):
to attend events like weddings, school dances, and job interviews,
or even to work out because they couldn't find appropriate clothing.
Alison Cable, lead study author and assistant professor of Health
sciences in the University of Missouri's School of Health Professions,
set in a press release the clothing industry continues to
exclusively cater to able bodied individuals, despite the fact that

(00:43):
people with disabilities often miss out on important life events
due to clothing related problems. The study authors call on
the fashion industry to take the millions of Americans living
with disabilities into consideration when creating clothes. They wrote, the
design fields and apparel industry could play a idal role
in helping people with mobility disabilities navigate these barriers. Some

(01:05):
fashion designers have already heated the call Stephanie Alvez is
the founder, CEO, and designer of a b L Denom,
which provides quality denom genes for people with limited dexterity
and mobility or with sensory processing issues like autism. She
made the leap into the world of adaptive fashion after
her step sister became a wheelchair user eight years ago.

(01:25):
Elvis explains she wasn't getting dressed much. She looked on
the web and all she could find was geriatric clothing,
So I started a Janes line because everyone said genes
were what they wanted most. Elves modifies designs to meet
the various needs of people with disabilities. She said, someone
who sits in a wheelchair all day can be prone
to pressure sores. Seems can push and hurt, and pressure

(01:46):
sores could land you in the hospital for three months,
so she strategically places seems to prevent pressure sores and
offers pants that are cut higher in the back to
prevent them from slipping too low, a common complaint of
wheelchair users. She offers one style with a zipper from
the waist to the hips so the whole front of
the pants can come down. That makes it easier for
people with catheters, feeding tubes, or clostby bags to use.

(02:10):
Best of all, anyone can wear her designs, which is
an important distinction for those who find traditional clothing for
people with disabilities to be stigmatizing. Elvis said, when I
wear the jeans, people don't know I'm wearing an adaptive gene.
Mandalina trout Chon, who lives in Haverstraw, New York, has
used a wheelchair for twenty years. She blogs at Pretty
Cripple and knows well the challenges of finding fashionable items

(02:33):
that are also wheelchair friendly. One of her pet peeves
is shirts with cuffs that are too long. These can
get dirty when they rub against the wheelchairs tires. Another
problem is coats, something also singled out by many respondents
in the survey. We mentioned earlier. Coats can get stuck
in the wheelchair wheels because they're so bulky. Tru Chan said,
it's really hard to tuck it under your butt, so

(02:54):
you look like a cocoon shape. What would be great
is if designers could create two slits at the back
like a guys business jacket. Tu Chon is hopeful that
the fashion industry will become more cognizant of the needs
of the disabled community. She said, I think people think
that maybe disabled people don't care about their appearance, But
I feel like because I take the effort to look good,
I make people smile. She reports taking a lot of

(03:16):
care with choosing her shoes because people always notice them,
and her hats because quote, your face is the first
thing a person sees. Another root for customers with disabilities
who can afford it might be made to order clothing.
S E n E is a custom made men'sware line
that serves men of all body types, including those with
limbs of various sizes. Founder and CEO Ray Lee said

(03:39):
in an email interview, it's a very tiny subset of
our customer base, but it's definitely a meaningful one for us.
Others make do with options in stores. Chris and Selmo,
who lives in West Hartford, Connecticut, has a form of
muscular distrophy called Miyoshi myopathy. He looks for pants that
are wide enough to accommodate his leg braces, and four
shirts or jacket he can button up or rather than

(04:01):
pulling over his head because he has lost arm strength.
He said via email, I see things heading in the
right direction now that people are starting to realize that
this is a need and an underserved population. Advocates for
adaptive and inclusive fashion are starting to make more noise
on behalf of the disabled population, and some retailers are
taking note. For example, Walmart dot Com carries a b L.

(04:23):
Denam items, and the Inclusive Fashion Design Collective was formed
to improve accessibility to attractive and functional fashion items in
diverse communities. Tommy Hilfiger also has a line of adaptive
clothing for kids. In addition to the efforts of individual designers,
there is the Open Style Lab, a nonprofit public service
project founded at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It runs

(04:45):
a ten week summer program where designers, engineers, and therapists
get together to create clothes for people with disabilities. It
also offers an accredited course at Parsons School of Design
in New York City, and the Lab was part of
the White House Fashion Show celebrating inclusive design in assist
of technology and prosthetics, as was a b L. Denum.
Open Style Lab Executive director Grace June said via email,

(05:08):
our mission is to make style accessible to people of
all abilities. While there is a growing number of companies
in this market. It's still a niche selection of available
clothing that is specifically aimed at people with disabilities. Any
individual with or without a disability should have the ability
to express themselves. Today's episode was written by Elia Hoyt

(05:31):
and produced by Tyler Clang. For more on this and
lots of other inclusive topics, visit our home planet, how
Stuff Works dot com.