Towards an Inclusive Virtual Dressing Room for Wheelchair-Bound Customers

This manuscript reports on a work-in-progress
project evolving aside from a main undertaking; that of making a
commercial ‘Internet of Things’ style product called “The
Virtual Dressing Room (VDR)”. The project targets the process
chain from designer and clothing manufacturer to retailer and
end-user customers. The VDR has been subject of other
publications, thus is introduced only briefly in this manuscript.
VDR is a ‘non-groupware-based’ project funded under the
Danish National Advanced Technology Foundation. A main goal
at conception was reducing returns of online purchased apparel,
which, at a reported approximately 40%, is crippling the clothing
industry. Results from public response surveys (including at The
Scandinavian Health & Rehab Messe) to a VDR simulation
system clearly indicated how the wheelchair-bound community
perceived benefits from the system. This was unexpected and
aside from the original VDR project design requisite. Interviews
highlighted problems of high street fitting rooms not being sized
to accommodate wheelchairs, and often so minimally sized as to
not enable a second helping person to be present to support the
involved undressing and dressing procedures. Existing online
purchasing systems were also considered problematic including a
need to improve social networking to enable others Online to
view clothes considered for purchase to assist decision making.
The production suffered problematic cooperation, coordination,
communication, and collaboration that prevented early product.
This resulted in additional surveys and the evolution of this
additional work-in-progress. Following introducing the VDR, key
issues such as interface design, body measurement, and cloth
representation in the VDR is discussed. The finding of
wheelchair-bound-need is envisioned as a next-generation
iteration and is thus the focus of this contribution to position the
work-in-progress and invite like-minded interested parties to
collaborate towards optimization of a system to realize potentials.