Accessible Footwear Kits 2025
Research Theme
This year’s theme built on OSL’s accumulated research of challenges experienced by the disability community relating to shoes. It resulted in the design of the OSL Accessible Footwear Kit - a curated selection of practical tools, user-guides, and educational resources designed by, with, and for:
People with disabilities, people in older age and people with temporary impairments - to foster greater agency, creativity and ownership over their footwear.
Design educators - to spread awareness and harness new ideas in the inclusive design space.
Industry partners - to support the development of more accessible and beautiful shoes.
The OSL 2025 Fellowship was not about inventing new shoes - it was concerned with rethinking the entire ecosystem of footwear. From creation and purchasing to wear and care, fellows took a holistic, human-centered approach to explore how design can better serve the disabled community
What Made This Program Unique
Launch of the UK Summer Program
Open Style Lab has expanded globally from its roots in New York to launch a UK-based program, extending its mission of inclusive design across borders. This growth fosters cross-collaboration between international cohorts, allowing fellows to share insights, co-create solutions, and strengthen a global network dedicated to accessibility and innovation in design. The first OSL expansion happened in London, a timely place for its vibrant legacy of inclusive design, setting the foundation for meaningful, community-led innovation for years to come.
ID: UK fellows ideating together
Outcomes Beyond the Program
One of the main pillars of the summer program is that it’s never about just the single product outcome at the end, but about the relationships, community, disability leadership, and impact of the cohort beyond the fellowship. The curriculum not only included educational material from a decade of OSL’s internal research but also guest lectures from experts of adaptive design, community focused design, and adaptive packaging. Part of the core curriculum also integrated interactive sessions intentionally designed to center disability culture, voice, and leadership:
ID: Maggie, Revive, Audrey, Ruanne, and Kairu ideating together on kit packaging.
Alumni Integration
60% of 2024 alumni came back as mentors and feedback community members for the 2025 program
The ongoing presence of alumni not only enriched the program experience but also fostered a culture of mentorship, continuity, and shared leadership. As mentors, alumni offered firsthand insights, guidance, and solidarity grounded in lived experience, creating meaningful inter-cohort connections and reinforcing a sense of long-term community. Their continued engagement helped build a sustainable ecosystem of disabled leaders supporting one another across program years and fields of work.
ID: 2024 alumni, Emma, Sam, and Michele, in the feedback workshop for the 2025 fellows
Case Study:
Team Corey + Team Abbie US/UK Collaboration
Over the course of just six weeks, OSL’s US and UK programs connected virtually across the Atlantic, extending the Open Style Lab community internationally and enriching the program with diverse contextual perspectives.
Both Team Corey (US) and Team Abbie (UK) began their respective fellowships exploring the shared theme of Durability and Care, each developing unique approaches rooted in their local contexts. As the weeks progressed, parallels emerged in their research findings, prototypes, and material testing, alongside meaningful differences shaped by geographic and cultural perspectives. These insights revealed a valuable opportunity for deeper cross-team collaboration, allowing both cohorts to expand their analysis and strengthen the overall impact of their work.
Team Corey (US): Corey Copeland (Disabled Expert), Revive Sun (Designer), Ruanne Catapang (OT)
Team Abbie (UK): Abbie Hills (Disabled Expert), Li Ping Chan (Engineer), Carlie Wieland (OT), Siobhán Twomey & Thomas Batchelor Wylam (Designers)
“Sneakers are the foundation of my outfit. That’s why I want to preserve my shoes as long as I can.”
Corey Copeland (US Disabled Expert Fellow)
“I constantly scuff my shoes and boots as my gait changes day to day. I wanted to extend the shelf life of my shoes and also not feel self conscious that they don’t look good.”
Abbie Hills (UK Disabled Expert Fellow)
Design Requirements
US: Design a discreet, non-medical-looking solution that helps users like Corey preserve the clean look of their sneakers, reduce wear and tear in drag areas, and minimize the effort needed for cleaning.
UK: To create visually appealing, customisable and easy to apply solutions to support people with reduced mobility to care for and increase the durability of their footwear.
Where the Challenge Extends
Foot drag affects approximately 19 per 100,000 people in the general population (StatPearls, 2025)
Shoe wear-and-tear challenges extend to individuals with a wide range of disabilities, including cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and many others. (Open Style Lab White Paper, 2024)
For individuals with disabilities, distinct walking patterns and interactions with medical devices can cause disproportionate shoe wear, including holes and worn-out soles (Open Style Lab White Paper, 2024). These visible signs of wear may lead to misinformed assumptions (Gillath et al, 2012), contributing to stigma and the further marginalization of disabled individuals.
“Most ‘professional’ shoes I can wear get destroyed quickly because of how I walk. This limitation influenced the kind of career I ended up in, the way I dress and present overall, and also the mechanics of my gait, as for years I bought and wore the cheapest shoes I could find, which often worsened my pain and increased my limitations” (Anonymous 2023 OSL Footwear Workshop Participant).
Team Corey and Team Abbie’s Solutions
- Team Corey’s Scuff Off: A temporary, easy-to-apply solution designed to help protect your shoes from scuffs and wear.
- Team Abbie’s Faux Caps: Permanent stickers that come in multiple shapes and sizes to protect and repair your shoes from external damage.
- Team Abbie’s Universal Applicator: A moldable pen holder that enables easier grip and control when colouring in and customising the faux cap stickers.
US and UK Collaboration
“Sharing our temporary sneaker bandage with Team Abbie’s more permanent version opened up space to reflect on design choices and compare what works for different style and comfort needs— reminding us how thoughtful design, shaped by collaboration among people with disabilities, occupational therapists, designers, and engineers can lead to more thoughtful, personalized solutions.”
Ruanne Catapang (US Occupational Therapy Fellow)
“I loved creating a product that was aligned with our fellow US cohort. As a disabled person you often feel alone with your challenges, but the intentions and story behind why we wanted to create the patches to prevent shoe scuffing showed that I’m not alone with this issue. Our final products complimented each other beautifully - which perfectly captures the codesign element of OSL.”
Abbie Hills (UK Disabled Expert Fellows)
What our fellows are saying
“It is so apparent how much everyone cares about the program and it speaks volumes that so many past Fellows are still involved with the organization.”
2025 fellow
“From the first zoom meeting with this cohort, I could feel and see something different even coming through my screen. It was the first time I was in a group that cares about what I care about. Fashionable adaptive clothing & shoes. I was with people with disabilities who understand the challenges that come along with having a disability, and designers, engineers, OTs, thought leaders, past Fellows, etc. who care about people with disabilities and making their lives better through inclusive design.”
Dona Edwards (US Disabled Expert Fellow)
“I have learnt even more than I was expecting. The opportunities to learn about disability, other specialties, inclusive design have been more than interesting and allowed me to grow as a person. It was also beneficial to be there as an OT and disabled expert as it allowed me to use both my expertise which is rare but important. I feel like OSL has gone beyond inclusivity and I have felt like an equal which has been lacking in my previous experiences with other jobs, universities, and companies.”
Amelia Wannell (Disabled Expert & OT)
“Open Style Lab has access and inclusion baked into their process from the start, in a way I wish all organizations would take note of. By allowing the participants to get to know each other’s passions, quirks, and even their sticker preferences throughout the summer- disabled and able bodied people are able to work together as friends in a community. This upends so many of the assumptions and narratives about disabled people and their ability to contribute to the world in the best of ways. ”
Maggie Keenan-Bolger (US Disabled Expert Fellow)