Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works, Hey, brain
Speaker 1: Stuff Lauren Vogelbaum here. The fashion industry has some catching
Speaker 1: up to do when it comes to considering people with disabilities.
Speaker 1: That's according to the results of a recent study which
Speaker 1: surveyed a hundred and thirteen people with mobility impairments. The
Speaker 1: findings showed that about half of the respondents were unable
Speaker 1: to attend events like weddings, school dances, and job interviews,
Speaker 1: or even to work out because they couldn't find appropriate clothing.
Speaker 1: Alison Cable, lead study author and assistant professor of Health
Speaker 1: sciences in the University of Missouri's School of Health Professions,
Speaker 1: set in a press release the clothing industry continues to
Speaker 1: exclusively cater to able bodied individuals, despite the fact that
Speaker 1: people with disabilities often miss out on important life events
Speaker 1: due to clothing related problems. The study authors call on
Speaker 1: the fashion industry to take the millions of Americans living
Speaker 1: with disabilities into consideration when creating clothes. They wrote, the
Speaker 1: design fields and apparel industry could play a idal role
Speaker 1: in helping people with mobility disabilities navigate these barriers. Some
Speaker 1: fashion designers have already heated the call Stephanie Alvez is
Speaker 1: the founder, CEO, and designer of a b L Denom,
Speaker 1: which provides quality denom genes for people with limited dexterity
Speaker 1: and mobility or with sensory processing issues like autism. She
Speaker 1: made the leap into the world of adaptive fashion after
Speaker 1: her step sister became a wheelchair user eight years ago.
Speaker 1: Elvis explains she wasn't getting dressed much. She looked on
Speaker 1: the web and all she could find was geriatric clothing,
Speaker 1: So I started a Janes line because everyone said genes
Speaker 1: were what they wanted most. Elves modifies designs to meet
Speaker 1: the various needs of people with disabilities. She said, someone
Speaker 1: who sits in a wheelchair all day can be prone
Speaker 1: to pressure sores. Seems can push and hurt, and pressure
Speaker 1: sores could land you in the hospital for three months,
Speaker 1: so she strategically places seems to prevent pressure sores and
Speaker 1: offers pants that are cut higher in the back to
Speaker 1: prevent them from slipping too low, a common complaint of
Speaker 1: wheelchair users. She offers one style with a zipper from
Speaker 1: the waist to the hips so the whole front of
Speaker 1: the pants can come down. That makes it easier for
Speaker 1: people with catheters, feeding tubes, or clostby bags to use.
Speaker 1: Best of all, anyone can wear her designs, which is
Speaker 1: an important distinction for those who find traditional clothing for
Speaker 1: people with disabilities to be stigmatizing. Elvis said, when I
Speaker 1: wear the jeans, people don't know I'm wearing an adaptive gene.
Speaker 1: Mandalina trout Chon, who lives in Haverstraw, New York, has
Speaker 1: used a wheelchair for twenty years. She blogs at Pretty
Speaker 1: Cripple and knows well the challenges of finding fashionable items
Speaker 1: that are also wheelchair friendly. One of her pet peeves
Speaker 1: is shirts with cuffs that are too long. These can
Speaker 1: get dirty when they rub against the wheelchairs tires. Another
Speaker 1: problem is coats, something also singled out by many respondents
Speaker 1: in the survey. We mentioned earlier. Coats can get stuck
Speaker 1: in the wheelchair wheels because they're so bulky. Tru Chan said,
Speaker 1: it's really hard to tuck it under your butt, so
Speaker 1: you look like a cocoon shape. What would be great
Speaker 1: is if designers could create two slits at the back
Speaker 1: like a guys business jacket. Tu Chon is hopeful that
Speaker 1: the fashion industry will become more cognizant of the needs
Speaker 1: of the disabled community. She said, I think people think
Speaker 1: that maybe disabled people don't care about their appearance, But
Speaker 1: I feel like because I take the effort to look good,
Speaker 1: I make people smile. She reports taking a lot of
Speaker 1: care with choosing her shoes because people always notice them,
Speaker 1: and her hats because quote, your face is the first
Speaker 1: thing a person sees. Another root for customers with disabilities
Speaker 1: who can afford it might be made to order clothing.
Speaker 1: S E n E is a custom made men'sware line
Speaker 1: that serves men of all body types, including those with
Speaker 1: limbs of various sizes. Founder and CEO Ray Lee said
Speaker 1: in an email interview, it's a very tiny subset of
Speaker 1: our customer base, but it's definitely a meaningful one for us.
Speaker 1: Others make do with options in stores. Chris and Selmo,
Speaker 1: who lives in West Hartford, Connecticut, has a form of
Speaker 1: muscular distrophy called Miyoshi myopathy. He looks for pants that
Speaker 1: are wide enough to accommodate his leg braces, and four
Speaker 1: shirts or jacket he can button up or rather than
Speaker 1: pulling over his head because he has lost arm strength.
Speaker 1: He said via email, I see things heading in the
Speaker 1: right direction now that people are starting to realize that
Speaker 1: this is a need and an underserved population. Advocates for
Speaker 1: adaptive and inclusive fashion are starting to make more noise
Speaker 1: on behalf of the disabled population, and some retailers are
Speaker 1: taking note. For example, Walmart dot Com carries a b L.
Speaker 1: Denam items, and the Inclusive Fashion Design Collective was formed
Speaker 1: to improve accessibility to attractive and functional fashion items in
Speaker 1: diverse communities. Tommy Hilfiger also has a line of adaptive
Speaker 1: clothing for kids. In addition to the efforts of individual designers,
Speaker 1: there is the Open Style Lab, a nonprofit public service
Speaker 1: project founded at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It runs
Speaker 1: a ten week summer program where designers, engineers, and therapists
Speaker 1: get together to create clothes for people with disabilities. It
Speaker 1: also offers an accredited course at Parsons School of Design
Speaker 1: in New York City, and the Lab was part of
Speaker 1: the White House Fashion Show celebrating inclusive design in assist
Speaker 1: of technology and prosthetics, as was a b L. Denum.
Speaker 1: Open Style Lab Executive director Grace June said via email,
Speaker 1: our mission is to make style accessible to people of
Speaker 1: all abilities. While there is a growing number of companies
Speaker 1: in this market. It's still a niche selection of available
Speaker 1: clothing that is specifically aimed at people with disabilities. Any
Speaker 1: individual with or without a disability should have the ability
Speaker 1: to express themselves. Today's episode was written by Elia Hoyt
Speaker 1: and produced by Tyler Clang. For more on this and
Speaker 1: lots of other inclusive topics, visit our home planet, how
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com.