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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works, Hey, brain

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Speaker 1: Stuff Lauren Vogelbaum here. The fashion industry has some catching

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Speaker 1: up to do when it comes to considering people with disabilities.

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Speaker 1: That's according to the results of a recent study which

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Speaker 1: surveyed a hundred and thirteen people with mobility impairments. The

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Speaker 1: findings showed that about half of the respondents were unable

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Speaker 1: to attend events like weddings, school dances, and job interviews,

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Speaker 1: or even to work out because they couldn't find appropriate clothing.

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Speaker 1: Alison Cable, lead study author and assistant professor of Health

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Speaker 1: sciences in the University of Missouri's School of Health Professions,

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Speaker 1: set in a press release the clothing industry continues to

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Speaker 1: exclusively cater to able bodied individuals, despite the fact that

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Speaker 1: people with disabilities often miss out on important life events

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Speaker 1: due to clothing related problems. The study authors call on

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Speaker 1: the fashion industry to take the millions of Americans living

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Speaker 1: with disabilities into consideration when creating clothes. They wrote, the

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Speaker 1: design fields and apparel industry could play a idal role

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Speaker 1: in helping people with mobility disabilities navigate these barriers. Some

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Speaker 1: fashion designers have already heated the call Stephanie Alvez is

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Speaker 1: the founder, CEO, and designer of a b L Denom,

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Speaker 1: which provides quality denom genes for people with limited dexterity

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Speaker 1: and mobility or with sensory processing issues like autism. She

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Speaker 1: made the leap into the world of adaptive fashion after

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Speaker 1: her step sister became a wheelchair user eight years ago.

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Speaker 1: Elvis explains she wasn't getting dressed much. She looked on

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Speaker 1: the web and all she could find was geriatric clothing,

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Speaker 1: So I started a Janes line because everyone said genes

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Speaker 1: were what they wanted most. Elves modifies designs to meet

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Speaker 1: the various needs of people with disabilities. She said, someone

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Speaker 1: who sits in a wheelchair all day can be prone

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Speaker 1: to pressure sores. Seems can push and hurt, and pressure

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Speaker 1: sores could land you in the hospital for three months,

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Speaker 1: so she strategically places seems to prevent pressure sores and

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Speaker 1: offers pants that are cut higher in the back to

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Speaker 1: prevent them from slipping too low, a common complaint of

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Speaker 1: wheelchair users. She offers one style with a zipper from

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Speaker 1: the waist to the hips so the whole front of

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Speaker 1: the pants can come down. That makes it easier for

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Speaker 1: people with catheters, feeding tubes, or clostby bags to use.

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Speaker 1: Best of all, anyone can wear her designs, which is

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Speaker 1: an important distinction for those who find traditional clothing for

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Speaker 1: people with disabilities to be stigmatizing. Elvis said, when I

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Speaker 1: wear the jeans, people don't know I'm wearing an adaptive gene.

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Speaker 1: Mandalina trout Chon, who lives in Haverstraw, New York, has

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Speaker 1: used a wheelchair for twenty years. She blogs at Pretty

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Speaker 1: Cripple and knows well the challenges of finding fashionable items

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Speaker 1: that are also wheelchair friendly. One of her pet peeves

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Speaker 1: is shirts with cuffs that are too long. These can

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Speaker 1: get dirty when they rub against the wheelchairs tires. Another

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Speaker 1: problem is coats, something also singled out by many respondents

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Speaker 1: in the survey. We mentioned earlier. Coats can get stuck

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Speaker 1: in the wheelchair wheels because they're so bulky. Tru Chan said,

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Speaker 1: it's really hard to tuck it under your butt, so

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Speaker 1: you look like a cocoon shape. What would be great

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Speaker 1: is if designers could create two slits at the back

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Speaker 1: like a guys business jacket. Tu Chon is hopeful that

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Speaker 1: the fashion industry will become more cognizant of the needs

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Speaker 1: of the disabled community. She said, I think people think

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Speaker 1: that maybe disabled people don't care about their appearance, But

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Speaker 1: I feel like because I take the effort to look good,

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Speaker 1: I make people smile. She reports taking a lot of

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Speaker 1: care with choosing her shoes because people always notice them,

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Speaker 1: and her hats because quote, your face is the first

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Speaker 1: thing a person sees. Another root for customers with disabilities

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Speaker 1: who can afford it might be made to order clothing.

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Speaker 1: S E n E is a custom made men'sware line

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Speaker 1: that serves men of all body types, including those with

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Speaker 1: limbs of various sizes. Founder and CEO Ray Lee said

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Speaker 1: in an email interview, it's a very tiny subset of

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Speaker 1: our customer base, but it's definitely a meaningful one for us.

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Speaker 1: Others make do with options in stores. Chris and Selmo,

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Speaker 1: who lives in West Hartford, Connecticut, has a form of

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Speaker 1: muscular distrophy called Miyoshi myopathy. He looks for pants that

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Speaker 1: are wide enough to accommodate his leg braces, and four

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Speaker 1: shirts or jacket he can button up or rather than

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Speaker 1: pulling over his head because he has lost arm strength.

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Speaker 1: He said via email, I see things heading in the

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Speaker 1: right direction now that people are starting to realize that

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Speaker 1: this is a need and an underserved population. Advocates for

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Speaker 1: adaptive and inclusive fashion are starting to make more noise

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Speaker 1: on behalf of the disabled population, and some retailers are

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Speaker 1: taking note. For example, Walmart dot Com carries a b L.

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Speaker 1: Denam items, and the Inclusive Fashion Design Collective was formed

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Speaker 1: to improve accessibility to attractive and functional fashion items in

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Speaker 1: diverse communities. Tommy Hilfiger also has a line of adaptive

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Speaker 1: clothing for kids. In addition to the efforts of individual designers,

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Speaker 1: there is the Open Style Lab, a nonprofit public service

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Speaker 1: project founded at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It runs

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Speaker 1: a ten week summer program where designers, engineers, and therapists

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Speaker 1: get together to create clothes for people with disabilities. It

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Speaker 1: also offers an accredited course at Parsons School of Design

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Speaker 1: in New York City, and the Lab was part of

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Speaker 1: the White House Fashion Show celebrating inclusive design in assist

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Speaker 1: of technology and prosthetics, as was a b L. Denum.

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Speaker 1: Open Style Lab Executive director Grace June said via email,

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Speaker 1: our mission is to make style accessible to people of

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Speaker 1: all abilities. While there is a growing number of companies

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Speaker 1: in this market. It's still a niche selection of available

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Speaker 1: clothing that is specifically aimed at people with disabilities. Any

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Speaker 1: individual with or without a disability should have the ability

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Speaker 1: to express themselves. Today's episode was written by Elia Hoyt

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Speaker 1: and produced by Tyler Clang. For more on this and

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Speaker 1: lots of other inclusive topics, visit our home planet, how

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Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com.