Pedagogy and Professional Development

Creating an Open Educational Resource (OER) on Adaptive Apparel Design: Why and How

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Abstract

We report on our experience developing on open educational resource (OER) to fill an unmet textbook need—adaptive apparel design. More than one billion people, around 16% of the world population, have some form of disability (temporary or permanent) (World Health Organization, 2023). The adaptive clothing market is currently underserved (Mallon, 2019). However, the adaptive clothing market is estimated to grow to nearly $400 billion by 2026 (Gaffney, 2019). In the US, apparel retailers are launching brand extensions and offering adaptive apparel to aid disabled individuals, also referred to as a person with a disability (PWD), with clothing options (Weinswig & Schmidt, 2021). The OER is currently being used to support apparel product development students who elect to focus on adaptive apparel for their capstone projects. Mid-project results indicate that the developed OER provided students with the specific knowledge and resources to design adaptive apparel and other wearable soft-good products. 

Keywords: apparel, adaptive, design, OER

How to Cite:

McKinney, E. & Eike, R. J., (2024) “Creating an Open Educational Resource (OER) on Adaptive Apparel Design: Why and How”, International Textile and Apparel Association Annual Conference Proceedings 80(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/itaa.17208