SYSTEMS-APPROACH TO CLOTHING FOR DISABLED USERS - WHY IS IT DIFFICULTFOR DISABLED USERS TO FIND SUITABLE CLOTHING

Today's clothing market is not adapted for people with unusual body di mensions and/or different kinds of functional impairments, They will b e refered to as disabled users, The method of user-oriented product de velopment combined with the soft systems methodology has been applied in order to understand and possibly solve their problem, Sixty five di sabled users were interviewed, The results show that the disabled user s must be divided into subgroups, Their requirements are very much dep endent on their impairment not only regarding the fit and function of the clothing, but also regarding shopping and service in the stores, T he symbolic values of clothing are just as important as the functional values, However, it is essential not to focus on the end product only , but to look at the problem as a system consisting of: manufacturing, marketing and end use, A new method of taking three dimensional measu rements from range images of the human body has been developed, In com bination with other developments in information technology it will be possible to synthesise a new system where the manufacturers and retail ers of clothing can co-operate in order to give service to disabled us ers. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.