‘Adaptive Clothing’ seems to be an oblivious term in the facet of Indian vesture. As the vestment Statement is changing for the fashion fanatics, so as the clothing for people with disabilities. To add up in this line of changing livery, we have an idea which is one of its kind in India named, “Clothing4All’ –India’s first all-inclusive online platform.
According to the 2011 census, India’s differently-abled population stands at 2.68 crores and according to WHO, around 100 million are people with special needs including senior citizens and people with severe health disorders. Surprised? Well, you should be.
Disabled- friendly infrastructure has not dawned on India completely, which hinders the accessibility, hampers movement and also limits the social interaction of disabled people having moderate to severe disability levels. And as this was not enough, people also struggle with clothing and fashion because of their disability due to the dearth of ‘Adaptive Clothing’ in India. There are almost none clothing line designed especially for those who are bedridden, a wheelchair user, senior citizens, suffering from age-related and limited mobility issues and they have to end up with adjusting to the conventional clothing.
To confront this, ‘BillionAbles’ has turned up with India’s only adaptive clothing line “Clothing4All” which has been designed especially for ALL, yes ALL. Adaptive Clothing makes it breezy and changes everyday clothing into styles that can be easily worn by people with physical disabilities. It is designed to make it easy to dress/undress by providing easy access to certain body parts without having to fully remove any clothing, making life simpler for everyone.
About the Initiators
BillionAbles is a social enterprise working towards accessibility, inclusion and empowerment of persons with disabilities by introducing them to a more inclusive and accessible world.
The company is the brainchild of Sameer Garg, disabled due to a spinal injury two decades ago and Deepak Kumar, the technical wizard of the company. ‘BillionAbles’ is India’s first all-inclusive online platform to discover accessible places, products and services for the person with disabilities, special needs and elderly. The website currently has 350 listings among various categories across India with more than 2000 users actively using the platform and the number grows each day. It has a strong presence in Delhi, Rajasthan and Goa with verified listings added to daily.
Insights of Adaptive Clothing
Contrived for the people with physical disabilities who experience difficulty in dressing themselves due to the lack of motion required for self-dressing, Adaptive Clothing caters remedy to their inability of manipulating closures, such as buttons and zippers.
Adaptive clothing typically offers rear-closure designs so that an individual can be dressed more easily. A common misconception of adaptive clothing is that it is only for wheelchair users or others that suffer from severe disabilities. While these groups do benefit from the garments, adaptive clothing is for anyone that can be limited by traditional clothing. Adaptive items use different features such as Velcro closures and magnetic buttons to make dressing easier, while still having the outward appearance of typical clothing. Other tweaks include using flat seams and replacing standard tags with tag less options to allow more comfort to the skin.
Apprehending the traction
Some of the milestones Clothing4All has achieved so far:
- More than 1000 users are availing their services on web and mobile app.
- Selected in Catapooolt Product Czars along with the top 50 startups from India.
- Featured on All Major Media Platforms(Your Story, GadgetsNdtv, The Hindu, Indian Express, VC Circle, BWDisrupt, Businessworld ) to name a few.
It’s an attempt at leveling the playing field so that this long-ignored segment can go out and have fun, just like the majority of the population. Your support will help them in the validation of the concept and pitch to the investors for making it a commercially viable and sustainable business model. Help this crowdsourced social revolution to empower the persons with special needs by introducing them to a more accessible world.
Want comfortable apparel? That’s easy to slip on by “Clothing4All”. Support them in reviving up the lives of 15% of the disabled population by backing the funds at https://www.catapooolt.com/clothing4all
Be First to Comment