Studies on Designing Adaptive Sportswear for Differently …
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Fig. 1 The proposed model for wheelchair users’ sportswear comfort, Lee and Jin (2019)
methods of ethnography, including observations, interviews and interaction methods.
Studies in real situation provide qualitative data at how design plays out in practice
[6]. These qualitative methods of observing the players playing on their wheelchairs
in the tennis field, mapping of changes in the body temperature using thermal cameras
in the real set up, formed the base of this study from May 2019—January 2020 at
Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association (KSLTA), Bengaluru, India.
Lamb and Kallal developed a design process that considered the functional needs,
expressive needs, and aesthetic needs of the clothing consumer. Functional needs
include fit, mobility, comfort, protection, and donning/doffing of the garment. Expressive needs include values, roles, status and self-esteem of the consumer. Aesthetic
needs include art elements, design principles, and body/garment relationships [5].
As these needs are also important and applicable for designing sportswear for the
wheelchair-bound tennis players, it has been studied through the interviews and
observations. Additionally, the conceptual design framework for wheelchair users’
sportswear comfort as proposed by Lee and Jin (2019) has also been used for conceptual design development, as shown in Fig. 1. The conceptual design framework
for wheelchair users’ sportswear comfort based on Lee and Jin (2019) takes into
account the degree of physical disability, type of sports and personal attributes into
consideration to cover functional, physiological and psychological comfort [7].
2.1 Participants
The study was conducted with one male and one female wheelchair tennis players
suffering from poliomyelitis, who volunteered for the study. Male and female players
were selected as literature reports that female wheelchair players have a more positive attitude towards adaptive sportswear than male wheelchair-bound players [8].
The experience of playing wheelchair tennis by the male athlete is 3 years and the
69
Fig. 1 The proposed model for wheelchair users’ sportswear comfort, Lee and Jin (2019)
methods of ethnography, including observations, interviews and interaction methods.
Studies in real situation provide qualitative data at how design plays out in practice
[6]. These qualitative methods of observing the players playing on their wheelchairs
in the tennis field, mapping of changes in the body temperature using thermal cameras
in the real set up, formed the base of this study from May 2019—January 2020 at
Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association (KSLTA), Bengaluru, India.
Lamb and Kallal developed a design process that considered the functional needs,
expressive needs, and aesthetic needs of the clothing consumer. Functional needs
include fit, mobility, comfort, protection, and donning/doffing of the garment. Expressive needs include values, roles, status and self-esteem of the consumer. Aesthetic
needs include art elements, design principles, and body/garment relationships [5].
As these needs are also important and applicable for designing sportswear for the
wheelchair-bound tennis players, it has been studied through the interviews and
observations. Additionally, the conceptual design framework for wheelchair users’
sportswear comfort as proposed by Lee and Jin (2019) has also been used for conceptual design development, as shown in Fig. 1. The conceptual design framework
for wheelchair users’ sportswear comfort based on Lee and Jin (2019) takes into
account the degree of physical disability, type of sports and personal attributes into
consideration to cover functional, physiological and psychological comfort [7].
2.1 Participants
The study was conducted with one male and one female wheelchair tennis players
suffering from poliomyelitis, who volunteered for the study. Male and female players
were selected as literature reports that female wheelchair players have a more positive attitude towards adaptive sportswear than male wheelchair-bound players [8].
The experience of playing wheelchair tennis by the male athlete is 3 years and the