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.
Drawing on this experience, her thoughts began
to churn when she heard curriculum ideas focusing on global issues related to
apparel proposed by Kerri McBee-Black, a professor in the Department of Textile
and Apparel Management. As Kabel says, she “tossed and turned for days”
thinking of the ways in which new curriculum could be developed to provide
focus on clothing needs for people with disabilities. Kabel had learned what so
many people with disabilities already know. There are, as Kabel says, “apparel-related
barriers” for people with disabilities when clothing doesn’t exist for a person
in a chair looking to dress professionally for a job interview, to wear a
specific uniform, or to have a nice dress to go on a date while maintaining the
function needed to maneuver and independently handle personal needs. The issue
becomes more about the desire to be an independent individual than it does merely
about clothing. Recognizing all the factors important to so many, the
Principles of Apparel Design class was soon formed, fusing the interests of
both Kabel and McBee-Black.
Averaging about 80 students a semester, Principles of
Apparel Design is a required class for all Textile and Apparel Management
majors and even attracts students from other disciplines. Groups of students
are assigned a target market and consumer, for which they develop a line of
apparel. Not all target markets are disability related, but a wide variety of
disability groups and scenarios, such as formal wear, professional wear, and
even Halloween costumes, have been represented in the projects. Students
conduct research and then build an inspiration for their line. Ultimately, “the
final submission is a storyboard that consists of flat, technical drawings of
their designs, along with fabric and color options for the line,” says
McBee-Black.
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Students were challenged to design garments for target consumers. This image is from a group that designed for a working woman who uses a wheelchair. |
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To give them the personal experience with people with
disabilities that they needed, the professors gathered a group of people from
Services For Independent Living, a local organization representing a variety of
types of disabilities. Students could ask anything that they wanted to help
them in their designs, and a dramatic improvement in the designs soon followed.
While some pieces had to be designed solely with a special need in mind, the
students realized that making a few minor tweaks to a design allowed for
universal design; people with disabilities were no longer excluded. The program
saw this research as being so valuable to the students that they applied for
and received grants to keep the research going, now involving personal
interviews and online questionnaires with people with disabilities and their
caregivers to determine specific consumer needs. Kabel “hypothesizes that unmet
needs translates to social barriers and lesser quality of life and finds it
exciting that teaching and research are supporting and informing each other” as
more is learned about what consumers with disabilities want and students take
in those concerns and provide designs that create solutions.
The class has been in existence for a few years now, and
they are hopeful to soon have their storyboard drawings become reality and to
have their findings documented in scientific journals. Regardless of whether or
not the specific drawings from the class hit the stores, something much more
important is happening. A generation of up-and-coming professionals in the
clothing world have experienced just how important it is to consider the needs
of people with disabilities and how having proper clothes actually breaks down
social barriers. “Now, students are more excited and interested in [disability-related]
categories. We are seeing students with more connections to people with
disabilities and with more of an interest in designing for them,” McBee-Black
says. People with disabilities are one step closer to having another barrier
removed from leading life in style and comfort thanks to the realizations of
these future designers.
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