Accessible clothing: How this project is redefining fashion and comfort for the disabled
Project DesignAbility has made clothing fashionable and accessible for hundreds of persons with disabilities.
Among the most laborious daily tasks for Bhavani Murthy, a wheelchair user from Salem, Tamil Nadu, is wearing churidar pants or salwar bottoms. Murthy, who runs a grocery store, spends at least 45 minutes to get dressed with help from her husband.
“Churidar pants are designed in such a way that makes it almost impossible for me to slip my legs into the tapering end of the bottom,” she tells SocialStory.
To her respite, she recently discovered slip-on salwar bottoms from Project DesignAbility, an initiative of SciArtsRUs—a California-based non-profit creating inclusivity and accessibility in arts and fashion. “These pants drastically reduce the time and labour required for me to get ready. For many of us with disabilities, wearing what we want is an important freedom that few recognise,” says Murthy.
Project DesignAbility is an initiative to create clothes specifically designed for people with disabilities (PwDs). It designs outfits that are accessible, adaptive, and can be worn easily.
For instance, slip-on kurtas feature magnetic buttons stitched into the front and come with drawstrings on the sides for size adjustment. Slip-on salwar bottoms are designed with zips along the legs while the project also makes sarees customised with magnetic buttons that can be worn in less than 30 seconds.
To make clothing accessible to PwDs, SciArtsRUs has crafted churidar bottoms with elastic fastening along the legs that make them resemble regular churidar pants.
Lalithambikai M, President, Society for the Rights of Women with Disabilities, who is also wheelchair-bound, has caught on to SciArtsRUs’ pants that can be slipped on from the head and strapped around the legs with velcro strips. These make it easier for many PwDs using callipers to use the toilet.
The project was launched on International Women’s Day 2023 at Vidya Sagar, a Chennai-based non-profit working to educate, rehabilitate, and offer lifelong support to people with disabilities (PwDs). As part of the event, SciArtsRUs presented 100 adaptive designer blouses sewn by Chennai-based studio Vidhya’s Comfort Designs.
“SciArtsRUs was founded on the pillars of inclusion and diversity,” says Los Angeles-based Ranjini Kaushik, Founder-President of the organisation. A biochemist and molecular biologist by profession, she is also an avid promoter of the arts. SciArtsRUs annually conducts an event called ArtAbilities 4 All, ‘Wings Unlimited’, featuring 400 artists with disabilities representing four continents and eight countries in California. In India, Kaushik curates an inclusive music and dance festival called ‘Margazhi Matram’.
She started Project DesignAbility after watching her mother with arthritis struggle and run out of breath while attempting to wear a saree. It made her wonder how cumbersome this experience must be for people with disabilities.
“Meeting of accessibility and universal design has remained our focus,” says Kaushik. As part of the vision, we also introduced disability-friendly outfits that can be slipped on from the sides.
Chennai-based Smitha Sadasivan, who facilitates trust-enabled decisions and support systems at Vidya Sagar, has been involved with the project since its inception, giving inputs to SciArtsRUs on the aspects for ease of use, comfort and style that PwDs want to be incorporated in their clothing.
“I got associated with SciArtsRUs while working on inclusive arts and during these discussions, Ranjini began thinking on how to make clothing not just user-friendly but also fashionable and well-fitting for women with disabilities,” says Sadasivan. “We got inputs from the State Forum for the Rights of all Women with Disabilities (SFRADW) and they came up with customised adaptations in their outfits.”
All garments are made by Vidhya’s Comfort Designs, with prices starting from Rs 1,300.
“My dream is to make these garments available in retail and online stores so that they can reach more people in need of adaptive clothing. Not just PwDs, but abled people too have benefitted from our products,” says Kaushik.
Edited by Kanishk Singh