Devices Offering Great Solutions (DOGS)

Dressing Aids

Items to help with getting dressed

What does it do?

These tools allow adults and children to get dressed more independently.

What kinds of dressing aids are there?

Zipper Hook or Pulls

Zipper pulls can be attached to every zipper tab to make zipping easier for people with arthritis, hand weakness, difficulty gripping, etc. A zipper hook is a tool that is inserted into a zipper to allow for pulling.

Button Hook

Button Hooks allow for more independent buttoning. A loop is inserted through the clothing eyelet and hooks over the button to allow it to be pulled back through the eyelet. This tool often comes with a zipper hook as well. Some tools are multipurpose, like the “pocket dresser.”

Sock Donner/Sock Aid

This tool is useful for putting socks on for someone with limited use of hands or is unable to bend forward due to limited range of motion restrictions.

Shoe Horn

Helpful for sliding shoes on without bending.

Pants Dressing Aid

Increases independence with lower body dressing for those who have difficulty bending over and reaching.

Reacher/Grabber Tool

Allows the user to pick clothing up off the floor without bending over.

Adaptive Footwear

Companies like Billy Footwear make shoes that unzip, allowing the wearer to place their foot onto the shoe footbed unobstructed.

Adaptive Clothing

You can adapt your clothing to use magnetic closures or swap out your regular shoelaces for elastic laces. Companies like Zappo’s Adaptive also sell clothing with these modifications already made.

Red bow pinned to a pocket

How do I see what's new?

Technology changes all the time. To find out about the latest options for these, you can type keywords into a search engine such as Google, Safari, Firefox, or Bing on a computer or tablet. These are the keywords for this type of item:

adaptive clothing, adaptive dressing tools, dressing aids

How do I find out more?

If you live in the US outside of Pennsylvania you would need to find your state's AT program.

If you live in Pennsylvania:

  • you could contact TechOWL to work with a specialist. We can meet with you and sometimes demonstrate this equipment. We can also help with different ways to get one for your own.
  • you might borrow this equipment to try out. Do we have this in our lending library?

Yes

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Alanna Raffel

Alanna Raffel is an occupational therapist. She has worked in a variety of settings including acute rehab, outpatient pediatrics, early intervention, and schools. She is passionate about accessibility and loves discovering and making new tools that promote independence. Alanna enjoys making assistive technology using her sewing machine and 3D printer.

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