Makers of Accessible Clothing
Specialty Designers Offer Fashionable Functionality to the Disabled
To look good is to feel good. For most people, a key component of looking good is clothes — clothes that fit, accentuate, and appear designed for that individual.
For the disabled, including those in wheelchairs, seniors with Alzheimer's or arthritis, or persons recovering from strokes, mastectomies, and amputations, finding clothes that fit and are easy to put on is difficult. Finding esteem-enhancing garments is harder still.
As the Disability movement has matured, however, specialty companies have emerged offering clothes and accessories that afford the disabled dignity and independence and enhanced efficiency to caregivers and institutions.
Designers of Adaptive and Accessible Clothing
Buck and Buck
Julie and Bill Buck founded their company in 1978 to provide comfortable, high-quality clothing for nursing home residents that are both fashionable and easily donned by those with physical and mental limitations.
Buck and Buck’s clothing and closure accessories promote independence and make assisted dressing easier. In addition to nursing home apparel, the company’s online catalogue features adaptive clothes (many with Velcro fasteners) for those with Alzheimer’s, arthritis, and Parkinson’s; stroke victims and amputees; and a full line of wheelchair and walker accessories.
Fashions for Special Needs
Fashion for Special Needs knows that to look good is to feel good, and designs adaptive clothing that is fashionable, functional, and easy to put on, including open-back shirts, dresses, and nightgowns.
Its products are made with high-quality fabrics with color and durability to stand up to industrial strength laundering. As Velcro fasteners tend to curl and stiffen, Comfort Clothing uses easily replaceable metal snaps on twill tape.
The Nth Degree
The Nth Degree (Lucky, Ohio) specializes in “Awarewear” and “Awareware” that celebrate inclusion and the Disability movement and culture with thoughtful artistry and humor, including designer t-shirts (as well as pins, posters, and bumper stickers) with messages such as “Adapt or Perish,” “Chronologically Gifted,” and “Don’t just sit there, do something.” According to its website, the Nth Degree is about “turning light bulbs on.”
Comfort Clothing
Comfort Clothing (888.640.0814) makes adaptive clothes for nursing home and home health care residents adapted to best solve the particular dressing problems of wheelchair users, seniors, and those suffering from such disabilities as stroke, arthritis, paralysis, diabetes, edema and incontinence.
Many products feature back-open designs that eliminate the need to raise or rotate the arms to put a garment on. Comfort Clothing provides free name labeling and free shipping on US orders of $100 or more.
Specially for You
Specially for You (605.765.9396) designs garments to meet the needs of each individual. Including nightgowns, “sitting” pants, one-piece outfits, halo shirts, lap robes, and walker and wheelchair bags. Most items are made from 100% cotton for comfort; seams are double sewn for strength and durability. Clothing needs not listed in the catalogue can be explored. Orders are normally shipped in 4-6 weeks.
Few joys are as simple as putting on a favorite piece of clothing, whether a warm pair of slippers, a flattering shirt, or a nightgown in one's favorite color--joys that are becoming increasingly accessible to those with special needs from companies that care about people as much as product.
Accessible Clothing Can Look Good
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