UCF Students Reimagine Clothing Through Adaptive Design

Highlights

• UCF students across disciplines partnered with patient volunteers and caregivers to design clothing that makes daily tasks easier and more accessible for people facing medical, mobility and sensory challenges.

• The project transformed classroom learning into real-world solutions that empower people to live more independently, while teaching students that impactful innovation starts with understanding the needs and experiences of those they hope to help.

At the UCF College of Health Professions and Sciences Rehabilitation Innovation Center, clothing becomes a tool for care. Students are combining health expertise and design to help people reclaim independence, confidence and comfort in daily living.

Through the Spring 2026 Health Tech Innovators Adaptive Clothing Hackathon, students across disciplines including physical therapy, health sciences, medicine, health services administration, and engineering worked together to redesign everyday garments around the needs of people facing medical, cognitive, and sensory challenges.

This year's project immersed students in real world healthcare challenges, pairing interprofessional teams with patient volunteers in the community and their caregivers to identify barriers created by traditional clothing and create personalized solutions.

"It's one thing to build something that works," says Associate Dean of Clinical Affairs and Healthcare Innovation Bari Hoffman, who led the program. "It's another thing to build something that's usable, comfortable and actually fits into someone's daily activities."

Interprofessional student teams showcased their adaptive clothing designs in a final presentation in which patient volunteers modeled the garments.

Human-Centered Design

For physical therapy doctoral student Ashley Peitz, the project revealed how something as ordinary as getting dressed can become physically exhausting when clothing isn't designed with accessibility in mind.

"We're working with a stroke survivor, and he wears a device on his left leg and has difficulty getting pants on and off without his [WalkAide device] getting in the way," Peitz says. "It makes things like going to the bathroom take longer, or just getting dressed take a little longer, which is fatiguing for him."

Students began the multi-month project by hearing from entrepreneurs in the adaptive clothing industry before interviewing and assessing their patient volunteers to better understand their daily routines, needs and personal preferences.

For Peitz's team, those conversations revealed not only the physical challenges their volunteer faces, but also his desire to maintain a sense of normalcy and personal style.

"His main goal was finding an easier way to take his garments on and off while still looking like everyday attire," Peitz says. "Everyone wants to fit in. Even something as simple as not having a shirt that fits correctly, or allows for your medical device to fit underneath, can make you feel outside the norm."

Innovation Through Empathy

After developing a garment design plan, presenting it for peer feedback and securing materials, students quickly learned the project required more than creativity. It demanded adaptability, communication and collaboration across disciplines.

"I think a lot of times, engineers think of a really cool, innovative idea, but sometimes the comfort and practicality of a human actually using it isn't the most ideal," says mechanical engineering major Jannah Barakat. "You shift from more of a product standpoint to more of a human-centered approach."

"I'm able to be a professional problem solver and learn how I can take something that is different for somebody else and really cater it to their needs."

Health sciences major Sari Greenstein and her team designed clothing for Marlie, a young girl with cerebral palsy who loves bright colors and Disney, especially Princess Tiana. They modified a sweatshirt and sweatpants with openings for a medical port and feeding tube and added zippered access points to the arms and the legs to make dressing and undressing easier for caregivers.

"It's a process [with] a lot of iteration and a lot of cultivation," Greenstein says. "I'm able to be a professional problem solver and learn how I can take something that is different for somebody else and really cater it to their needs."

Mission-Driven Work

During fabrication day, students assembled their garments with guidance from sewing professionals. Volunteers later returned to try on the finished outfits and provide feedback on the fit before final adjustments were made.

The project culminated in a final presentation during which student teams explained their designs and the patient volunteers modeled the clothing.

"We are not just changing clothing," Hoffman says. "We're actually changing how people move through their daily activities, how they feel about themselves and how independently they can live."

The experience also reinforced the value of interdisciplinary collaboration in healthcare.

"My biggest takeaway from this project is how important it is to work with all the other professions, especially in healthcare," Peitz says. "We all need to come together to make the patient's health our first priority."

The Health Tech Innovators program was developed in part through a grant from VentureWell to promote innovation in healthcare technology. Additional support and materials were provided through funding from the Chesley G. Magruder Foundation.

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