Kalshoven

Sector

Health and lifestyle, medical devices, fashion

Advisory team

Richmond Centre for Disability, GF Strong Rehabilitation Centre, Emily Carr University

Co-creator

Eileen Kalshoven

Designers

Lucia Hsieh, Jason Lu

My role

I conducted discovery research, product scans, co-creation sessions, sketched ideas, adapted patterns, and sewed prototypes.

Study date

2010

Cover photo by Jason Lu

Mobility restrictions impact how we dress ourselves

We studied people with 3 types of spinal cord injuries to understand some of the motor and sensory impairments they experience and what that means for day-to-day activities like getting dressed.

Quadriplegia usually results in lost function from the neck down including all 4 limbs.
Thoracic paraplegia usually results in loss of motor or sensory function from waist down, including abdominal muscles. The person still has use of their neck, arms and hands.
Lumbar paraplegia usually results in lost function of legs. The person still has control and use of their upper body.

Most clothing designs do not consider the needs of people with motor and sensory restrictions, making it difficult for them to wear.

For this study, we focused on people with thoracic and lumbar paraplegia.

Meet Eileen

Our co-creator shared her barriers to daily living. Her experiences and expertise helped guide us on how we could solve problems.

What we heard

Putting pants on the bed

Some people have to place clothing on the bed before sleeping in order to get dressed.

Taking pants on and off is a challenge

You often have to slide back and forth while lifting yourself up.

Preference between sitting or laying down

Some people prefer putting clothes on their beds and some prefer sitting down.

Long coats create bulk

In a sitting position, long coats don’t hold its intended shape, causing more effort to straighten the coat.

Hand protectors don’t match with everyday wear

Gloves designed for wheelchair users are often utilitarian and not fashionable.

Wrists often get dirty

Gloves or hand protectors are usually worn to avoid getting your hands dirty.

Design iterations

We explored construction methods, made patterns, and repurposed from existing clothing. Note that we are not fashion designers by trade so we had to be creative in our approach.

Features

Easier to put on and take off

Hidden zippers are located where fold lines are usually present. This creates more surface area to place both feet into the pants then zipped up.

Designed for sitting

The construction of the winter coat lays flat to the body. There’s also a detachable panel to make your coat longer if desired.

Illustration of person sitting on wheelchair with an attachable panel for winter coat. The panel is designed to taper to conform seating position, and detachable to change from short to long coat easily

Gloves on front and back with hand wrap on top of the gloves

Protect hands and gloves

Designed to protect your wrist from getting dirty. The hand wrap can be worn with or without gloves and is adjustable with hook and loop to conform with multiple sizes.

Illustration of hand wrap features. Notes include: hidden surface to protect hand or glove underneath, elastic band to account for different sizes, adjustable strap for different sizes

Steps

1 Secure pants on wheelchair

2 Slide to wheelchair

3 Slide legs into pants

4 Zip trousers on the sides

5 Put on coat

6 Attach removable flaps

7 Put on hand wrap

8 Ready to go

Moving forward

The duration of this project was for 3 months and we delivered a prototype for each pants, coat, and hand wrap. We’ve achieved a lot in that time and there is still more to be explored.

For this to be commercialized, we would need to prototype various sizes to test for fit on different body types and create patterns for production.

This project has opened my eyes to how mobility restriction could greatly impact our day-to-day life and it kickstarted my journey to design for more inclusive assistive devices.

Mobility restrictions impact how we dress ourselves

Meet Eileen

What we heard

Putting pants on the bed

Taking pants on and off is a challenge

Preference between sitting or laying down

Long coats create bulk

Hand protectors don’t match with everyday wear

Wrists often get dirty

Design iterations

Features

Easier to put on and take off

Designed for sitting

Protect hands and gloves

Steps

1

Secure pants on wheelchair

2

Slide to wheelchair

3

Slide legs into pants

4

Zip trousers on the sides

5

Put on coat

6

Attach removable flaps

7

Put on hand wrap

8

Ready to go

Moving forward

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