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Introduction

There are many challenges that face the world of design. One major point of focus is designing for disability. This will be the central focus of the essay, with an exploration of adaptive clothing lines, how disabled people purchase them and the consequential issues. The design response to this issue will be a campaign that raises awareness of the reality of fashion and shopping amongst those with a disability, trying to inspire social action. 

There will be five sections described below. The first begins with an analysis of the social issue of disability. It describes the social pressures and prejudices that come with it through an explanation of both social and universal design. Section II regards the real world examples of disability, which is disability in fashion, specifically shopping on the high street. It will also explain the inspiration behind the creation of the campaign, which leads into section III; campaign as the design response to these issues in disability. Section IV then demonstrates the visuals of the campaign and brings light to what it will actually look like. Section V will conclude the essay.

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I. Social Issue: Disability 

In considering designing for disability in the fashion industry, ‘social design’ and ‘universal design’ are crucial. Social design is about understanding the community being designed for and aims to make life easier and more practical, “it is about designing for needs rather than wants, finding practical solutions to enhance people’s well-being” (McClumpha, 2017). It is a form of design geared towards social and global change. Social design should now have greater focus on helping create sustainable and accessible developments that support positive change. Fry discusses the idea ‘defuturing’ as “it can no longer be assumed that we, en masse, have a future. If we do it can only be by design against the still accelerating defuturing condition of un-sustainability” (2009, 1). He argues that because the environment and disability are such prominent social issues, social design must continue to design for human practicality now more than ever. Designers must keep these urgent issues consistently in mind otherwise as Fry argues, the world will remove its own future.

Universal design in turn, is design that benefits everyone specifically those with a disability. To create a space that is suitable for both abled-bodies and bodies with disabilities. Jos Boys describes how there is much creative potential in design that keep disability in mind, however also recognises that “starting from disability does not lead to universal or simple design solutions" (2014, 4). Designing for the range of bodies that exist in the entire world is immensely difficult. However, Boys is arguing that the ‘creative potential’ is massive when considering disability and could open design up to many opportunities. These design opportunities link strongly to current developments in social disciplines; anthropology, sociology and psychology. This is because there is now greater understanding of the specificities regarding human need and want. There is an understanding of needing design to adapt and change around time and the variety of body types. Designing for people in the most practical way is therefore more available to us than ever before with the advancement of these social sciences.

Social and universal design are being practiced and design for people with disability has been thoroughly improved over the years. However, in considering the actual reality of disability beyond social theory, societal attitudes and disability design practices do come with fault. Boys uses a discussion of the medical model of disability versus the social model to emphasise this point. The medical model refers to the physical impairment of the person and the assumed lower quality of life. The social model of disability is more how disability is not the result of physical impairment, but the way people are forced to feel this impairment. He uses the comparison of these two frameworks of perspective to show how often times the biggest issue that surrounds disability is not always the disability itself, but the attitudes that surround it. There exist assumptions that life is worse and that those with disability are always extremely needy. There is social caution and lack of understanding that comes with disability because it not the ‘normal’. Disability scholars also reveal the discussions between disability studies and medical sociology about how to properly understand ‘disability’. These disciplines argue whether “disability is to be perceived as social oppression, exclusion and unequal rights or as being caused by impairment and illness" (Finkelstein 2001, Oliver 2004, Williams 1999, Bury 2000 cited in Brodersen and Lindegaard 2013, 268). Through this argument, the authors of the article Brodersen and Lindegaard decide to follow the description of disability by Thomas as he combines these two theories together. He writes, “disability only comes into play when the restrictions of activity experienced by people with impairment are socially imposed … it is entirely possible to acknowledge that impairments and chronic illness directly cause some restrictions of activity (Thomas 2004, 581). Thomas demonstrates that in many ways disability is a form of social oppression because of the limitations people with a disability have to certain activities, and how this is completely socially instilled. 

Consequentially, designing for disability is majorly important because it creates spaces accessible for more people and builds inclusiveness despite the diversity of bodies. It is vital to consider the reality of living with a disability both in the context of social theory and through real world examples. 

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II. Real World Example of Disability: Disability in Fashion

Designing for disability is therefore not always a given and neither is it always the most straightforward answer. This is why it is important to understand both social and universal design to see the ways in which many high street shops fall down. Many brands now have adaptive clothing lines, notably, Tommy Hilfiger, Bezgraniz Couture, Rebirth Garments, Target and M&S just to name a few (Barbarin, 2018). However, majority of the others still do not make them accessible to the physical shopper. Having an adaptive clothing line is a form of social design in considering the practicalities of designing for a different body type, however the lack of accessibility to trying these on in the shop itself is still very challenging for those people being designed for. Furthermore, because shop accessibility and disabled changing rooms are still very limited, it counters the idea of having an adaptive clothing line in the first place. It removes the person with a disability from being able to physically shop for themselves, as they are forced to do it online, particularly problematic for people with visual impairments. The design response to these issues is therefore my ‘#allthesame Campaign’, which will be explained below. The image below is a sketch of a basic retail floor plan. It highlights points of difficulty for disabilities and the challenges they are forced to face:

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