Langley woman designs clothes for young disabled girls in wheelchairs

A Langley fashion designer has come up with a solution to make clothes less uncomfortable and complicated for young girls ages two to fivewho have complex care needs.

The Jolie Hart fashion line consists of clothes with features such as welt openings or special types of pockets that are less restrictive when wearers are in a wheelchair, have a sensory processing disorderor are attached to tubes for feeding or for supplying oxygen.

"The clothing is still very wearable and very cute. The function that I put in is minimal but still very functional for these families," designer Taylor Byrom told On the Coast host Stephen Quinn.

Got feedback from affected families

"One of the major things that I do for a wheelchair-seated person is that I have a removable back on all my jackets. The back will actually button off at a certain pointand that removes a ton of bulk for when you're actually seated."

Byrom launched this line as part of her graduation project at Kwantlen Polytechnic University.

The idea came to her while volunteering with B.C. Children's Hospitaland then she started to put out surveys to families with complex-care-needschildren to hear what kind of clothing would be less restrictive.

She also had some people test out her clothes such as one young girl who had a line from a special backpack attached to her abdomen all the time.

"Whenever she wore a dress, [the line] would come out the hem and then hike up the hem of her dress," she said.

"But with the dress I had her test for meand give me feedback on, the line actually comes right out the side, so it's nowhere near the hem. It goes right into her backpack, and now you don't have that hiking sensation on the skirt."

Byrom said this girl's mother wrote back to her and said that they "immediately had a sense of freedom."

"It was incredible to hear that it actually did do what I wanted it to do, and it raised her wellness level and her self-esteem level," Byrom said.

"I can design this from what I think is rightbut to actually get that feedback from parents is priceless for this."

To hear the full interview listen to the audio labelled: Langley designer creates clothing for young girls who are in wheelchairs, have feeding or oxygen tubes