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Submitted by PatientsEngage on 12 June 2019

Anita Iyer Narayan, Founder and Managing Trustee of Ekansh Trust, Pune, shares her views on Adaptive Clothing as well as on the AD-DRESS NOW Project, a contest to sensitise the clothes designer as well as the manufacturer about the difficulties that people with disabilities face while dressing independently.

Adaptive clothing is clothing specially designed for people with physical disabilities, the elderly, and the infirm who may experience difficulty dressing. It can be because they do not have the required range of motion or the ability to deal with things like buttons, zippers. The idea is to enable people with any degree of disability or limited movement to dress independently or to help carers assist them with minimal effort.

So when Ekansh Trust launched the AD-DRESS NOW contest, PatientsEngage caught up with the founder Anita Iyer  in an email interview: 

Can you briefly tell us about Ekansh Trust's work on disability and inclusion

EKansh Trust was set up by me to address the lack of awareness in society about disability-related issues and possibilities.

Your previous projects were essentially in the space of inclusive education. 

Inclusive education is only one of our focuses, a very important one of course. Our story books and coloring pages are quite popular as each story and picture has a character with a disability and gives wide scope for discussions and learning. For further reference, please click here

What is adaptive clothing?

Adaptive clothing is that which is designed keeping special needs of individuals in mind. A simple solution like an elastic waist band instead of drawstrings can bring so much comfort to all.

There are children wearing uniforms to school…and now that schools are becoming inclusive – these can be made to suit different needs too.

Why is adaptive clothing important? What are the challenges persons with disabilities or reduced abilties face in the absence of adaptive clothing? Elaborate with examples.

Old age brings along its challenges. Bending to pull up a pair of trousers or underwear or draping a saree, hooking or unhooking the bra…these get tougher with age.

There are people of all ages who might have a disability that needs a stomach feeding tube – a stoma – how does one work around that? Children with sensory challenges are comfortable in different kinds of fabrics and accessories. People with Visual challenges have trouble choosing color coordinated clothes and recognising the size…also with the ironing and final appearance.

There is also a loss of dignity when help is needed with putting on and taking off clothes.

Caregivers of youth and adults with disabilities face a problem having to lift up their wards and change their clothes often. Adaptive clothing can go a long way in making things easier for them.

What is the AD-DRESS NOW project about? What are you looking to achieve?

It is a contest for aspiring, teaching and practising garment and fashion designers to recognise diverse needs and to turn it into a movement instead of individual efforts in different places. Some foreign brands have already introduced adaptive clothing lines and India must wake up to this need too. We hope it becomes an intrinsic part of the syllabus in institutes.

We do similar work to sensitize students of architecture and civil engineering to ensure buildings are made to suit people with different accessibility needs.

Check out the Catalogue of Designs for Adaptive Clothing 

What has your observation been as you work with various fashion designers? Is there awareness in terms of what needs to be done? Do fashion designers need a mindset change?

We have just had the teams sign up. Most are very enthusiastic. Some have dabbled in adaptive clothing design but it is now time to make it a nation wide journey towards inclusion.

Every team has one mentor with a disability so each team will actually interact , understand and translate their needs via their designs.

Anita, what are your expectations from the AD-DRESS NOW contest?

We need everybody’s support to make this effort a success. The finale has to reach as many people as possible and therefore, for once, we are trying to put up a show worth remembering. It is difficult to convince people about the power of one such event…and the resulting publicity for adaptive clothing…but the implications are really far reaching.

When we had announced our contest in barrier free architecture in 2009, we got very little funding because nobody understood the impact. Today India has a Sugamya Bharat Abhiyaan and everyone is rushing to find people with accessibility solutions…and finding too few.

We ALL wear clothes and we ALL hope to grow old…so we are all going to enjoy the benefits of this movement at some point.

Do wish us luck!

 

Ekansh Trust, Pune, an organization which works towards diabilities being understood holistically, through Awareness, Acceptance, Sensitisation and Inclusion