by Amy Saffell
Being a wheelchair user brings about many obvious
challenges, but often these challenges are only obvious to chair users
themselves and not the rest of society. One such challenge is that of clothing.
Chair users want their clothes to be both functional and fashionable, but much
of the clothing found in stores doesn’t have the desired look for someone
living life sitting down, doesn’t give the wearer easy access to handle
personal care needs, or includes features difficult for someone with limited
hand function. While not often considered by clothing manufacturers, clothing
that takes into consideration the needs of people with disabilities may soon be
more widely available thanks to professors and students at the University of
Missouri.
In 2011, School of Health professor Allison Kabel attended a
meeting to address curriculum changes on campus. As a social scientist with a
research background in the area of illness, disability, and culture, Kabel had
built an interest in how disability and culture merges and had studied how
people who had sustained spinal cord injuries rebuilt their lives, often making
their own personal adaptations in the world around them because a product that
could assist them didn’t exist.