Adaptive Clothing for Seniors
04/14/2014
Adaptive Clothing that is Comfortable and Aids with Dressing
Adaptive clothing can make dressing for seniors easier. Day-to-day living can become difficult for seniors; especially if one is suffering from a physical or mental ailment. Every aspect of one’s life can become more challenging, including dressing. Fortunately there are clothes available for seniors to make it easier to dress and remain comfortable. Such clothing is called “adaptive clothing” and a number of styles from various designers are available. Adaptive clothing is clothing designed for people with physical disabilities, the elderly, and the infirm who may experience difficulty dressing. The difficulty often arises due to an inability to manipulate closures, such as buttons and zippers, or due to a lack of a full range of motion required for self-dressing. Adaptive clothing is modified to help people with a high degree of disability and their caretakers or to assist individuals with a lower degree of disability to dress independently. The clothing typically offers rear-closure designs so that an individual can be dressed more easily by a caretaker. For example, rather than buttons and zippers, Velcro may be used for garment closures. Adaptive clothing can benefit people of all ages with disorders or natural aging such as the following: 
- Arthritis
- Cerebral Palsy
- Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
- Motor Neurone Disease (MND)
- Incontinence
- Alzheimer’s Disease
- Parkinson’s Disease
- Stroke
- Spinal Cord Injury (SCI)
- Brain Injury
- Muscular Dystrophy (MD)
- Contractures
- flat seams to reduce friction
- discrete adaptations to make the clothing look as normal as possible
- easy access with snaps, Velcro, or stretchy fabric
- roomy design to accommodate incontinence aids
- longer rise in the back to accommodate sitting in wheelchairs
- elastic waist for increased comfort, and reduced effort when dressing