Dressing aids - clothing and footwear
Getting dressed is something that most people take for granted, at least during their early and formative years. However, putting clothes on and taking them off can be a difficult and time consuming task for many people, either because of an illness or a medical condition, or as a result of aging.
Below you will see some links to further pages about the different aids and gadgets that can assist with dressing and undressing. They cover all kinds of clothing types (e.g. trousers, socks) and different fastenings (e.g. zips, buttons) and, although simple, they can be a great help.
- Dressing aids - main page General dressing aid information and index.
- Personal dressing aids - Clothing Aids to help pull up or put on trousers, stockings, socks, jackets, shirts etc.
- Dressing aids - Shoes Aids to assist in putting on and taking off shoes and tying shoe laces.
- Easy fastening aids Zip and button fastening aids.
If you want a general idea of the dressing aids that are available, read on below.
Dressing aids tend to fall into two main categories. The first are those that assist in the pulling up or around of trouser legs, stockings, socks and sleeves and the second are those that help with fastening clothing or shoes.
Aids to assist in putting clothes on
Most of these gadgets take account of limitations when it comes to movements like bending, stretching, reaching and holding. For this reason these aids often have handles or strings that are used to pull, hoist or reach and they make the putting on of a pair of trousers or a jacket much easier. They often have a hook or grabbing device at one end and this is used, almost like an extension of the arm, to get hold of the item of clothing at the appropriate point.
Socks and stockings are particularly awkward to reach and pull and some clever devices can be used to remove the need to bend down when putting these items of clothing on. Theses aids can look cumbersome or difficult, but they do work.
Aids to help with fasteners
The second category of clothing aids is one that helps with different fasteners. For many people holding and manipulating fasteners like buttons, zips and shoe laces can be difficult and sometimes impossible. These small items require both a precise grip and a reasonable degree of dexterity, particularly when feeding a button through a button hole, or when tying shoe laces.
The solution to these challenges are some small but clever aids that make each of these tasks much simpler to perform, firstly by solving the holding or gripping problem and secondly by using simple technology to overcome, or use an alternative method to solve, the dexterity problem. Some of these aids, e.g. a zip pull, can be permanently attached to a zipper whilst others, e.g. a button fastening aid, will easily fit into a pocket or purse.
All in all, there are a number of different aids that make dressing easier and, in so doing, allow independence to be maintained during dressing and undressing activities.
