A classification of care apparel characteristics for disabled user requirement

Abstract

Care apparel market for disabled customers in Hong Kong is substantially grown up over last decade. Disabled users could hardly find their required apparel products. It was found that the clothing needs of disabled users tend to have the functional and aesthetic elements of apparel product, which are key factors to determine the feasibility of production method. The study aims at to classify the apparel characteristic based on disability level of users, in order to assist care apparel development in production and market. Observation and interviews were made with the disabled customers. The result revealed that the user expectations for apparel product were classified into three groups based on characteristics of current products.