CUR8ABLE: DISABILITY, FASHION, LIFESTYLE
Expanding diversity and challenging negative perceptions of people with disabilities.
Project Description
pronounced (cure-eight-uh-bul) is all about living with disabilities out loud and in style. We are a disability fashion lifestyle brand bringing you the most stylish fashion, beauty, and lifestyle content.
Editor-in-Chief, Stephanie Thomas has followed clothing trends for people with disabilities for 25 years. It's her personal passion turned profession that birthed Cur8able. What started as a personal blog is now a disability fashion lifestyle platform featuring celebrities and influencers with disabilities who share their lives and expertise as Cur8tors.
Here is an excerpt from Cur8able founder Stephanie Thomas' TEDx Talk. To view the talk in its entirety click the link below.
WHY SHOULD I CARE?
That's a great question, I'm so glad you asked. There are three myths that have been around for decades that are still creating barriers for fashion customers with disabilities.
Myth 1. People with disabilities are a monolithic group –
No We’re Not! Disability thought leader, Kathie Snow suggests and I agree, that people with Disabilities are people first, and like all people have individual needs.
Myth 2. Designing clothing for people with disabilities will be too difficult, there are too many different types of disabilities.
Niche markets have been around for decades and I don’t love all of the terms used to describe them, be we have: maternity, petite, big & tall, curvy, busty, full-figure…plus once again, if designers can meet the fashion needs of pets then they can certainly meet the needs of people with disabilities.
Myth 3. “PWD don’t care about fashion, they have too many other things to worry about”. “They don’t want to go out and go shopping”. “They can’t afford to shop”. Really?
The World Health Organization reports that globally:
there are approximately 1.3 billion people with disabilities
650 million senior citizens
their family and friends represent more than 2.1 billion potential fashion customers
with an aggregate disposable income of over 8 trillion dollars.
WATCH TEDx TALK WITH FIRST FASHION SHOW ON TEDx STAGE
WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH MY MONEY?
- Raise enough of funds to cover our start-up budget
- Make sure Cur8able.com is fully accessible to all people with disabilities
- Hire top free-lance producers to create captivating viral media content
- Provide opportunities to highlight and partner with celebrities and influencers with disabilities around the world.
- Research, design, and implement strategic branding marketing and public relations
- One Satellite media tour to introduce morning show producers to Cur8able
We appreciate your time and consideration, with your help we can effectively challenge negative perceptions of people with disabilities while empowering people with disabilities with relevant, industry standard fashion, styling, beauty, and lifestyle content.
Updates
The Campaign FAQs
Cur8able began as a place for Stephanie Thomas to share Disability Fashion Styling System along with other styling tips and tools. But, as social media grew in popularity she searched for a website with the most stylish fashion, beauty, and lifestyle content for people with disabilities to share on her social media platform.
She wanted three things:
- She wanted the content to come from celebrities and tastemakers with disabilities living their lives out loud and in style.
- She wanted the website to look amazing! She wanted fashion insiders to be impressed and re-think the idea of fashion customers with disabilities.
- As a former television reporter/producer she wanted the site to be fun, engaging, jaw-dropping, informative, full of disability fashion edu-tainment.
Stephanie didn't find what she was looking for, so she worked closely with her web designer to take Cur8able.com from a blog to a Disability Fashion Lifestyle Brand.
Cur8able Challenges:
- Raise enough of funds to cover our start-up budget
- Make sure Cur8able.com is fully accessible to all people with disabilities
- Hire top freelance producers to create captivating viral media content
- Provide opportunities to highlight and partner with celebrities and influencers with disabilities around the world.
- Research, design, and implement strategic branding marketing and public relations
- One Satellite media tour to introduce morning show producers to Cur8able
Would you like to reach our audience with your products or services? Great, We would love to work with you and decide which Cur8able platform best supports your services or products.
A cur8tor is how we describe our contributors. Cur8able has nine Cur8tors who share their expertise on Cur8able.com, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, and Twitter. Our team includes an international fashion industry branding consultant, a disability thought leader, a disability advocate, an actress, You Tube content creator, media host, writer, and an award winning TV producer/model. Oftentimes people with disabilities are greeted with the phrase,
As a silent sufferer of Endometriosis-And 8 surgeries later, with knowledge of a multitude of treatment options-Here you have the opportunity to speak one on one and hear the ins and outs of this debilitating disease. This can be a Skype, Facetime, or an actual meeting one on one and here you will hear my experience, strength, and inspirational journey with Endometriosis. While battling this disease- I have managed to work runway production, visual merchandising, floral and commercial styling. I am open and happy to talk about it all! www.stylebyrobin.com
Stephanie Thomas, the founder and editor of Cur8able has 25 years of intellectual property she is open and willing to connect with you and serve as a guide for all educational resources, support, as well as styling tips for living with disabilities
In addition to the previous reward listed above, Cur8able will pull all our resources together and put together a personalized look book highlighting brands, styles, and informational material that works just for you!
Would you like to take your Cur8tor Chats to the next level? You can by selecting the Cur8tor or your choice and booking five 30-minute phones calls. Cur8able.com contributors are referred to as Cur8tors, celebrities and influencers living with disabilities outloud and in style! Have you recently become a person with a seated body type? Are you experiencing arthritic flare ups? These are just a few examples, maybe you just need to chat with someone who's been where you're going? If so book a Cur8tor Chat Speak with your favorite Cur8tor. Keep in mind they are in no way providing medical advice or psychological sessions. However, they are available to tell you about their journey as someone born with a disability or someone who has become a person with a disability due to an illness or injury.
Cur8able founder, Stephanie Thomas is a celebrated keynote speaker, on-air personality, and disability fashion styling segment expert. In addition to presenting a TEDx Talk at the third largest TEDx event in Canada, Stephanie has been featured in publications like People and media outlets around the world. Book Stephanie Thomas using this one time only discounted rate. This reward must be booked by Dec 31, 2017. *Does not include airfare and accommodations.
Rewards
Would you like to reach our audience with your products or services? Great, We would love to work with you and decide which Cur8able platform best supports your services or products.
A cur8tor is how we describe our contributors. Cur8able has nine Cur8tors who share their expertise on Cur8able.com, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, and Twitter. Our team includes an international fashion industry branding consultant, a disability thought leader, a disability advocate, an actress, You Tube content creator, media host, writer, and an award winning TV producer/model. Oftentimes people with disabilities are greeted with the phrase,
As a silent sufferer of Endometriosis-And 8 surgeries later, with knowledge of a multitude of treatment options-Here you have the opportunity to speak one on one and hear the ins and outs of this debilitating disease. This can be a Skype, Facetime, or an actual meeting one on one and here you will hear my experience, strength, and inspirational journey with Endometriosis. While battling this disease- I have managed to work runway production, visual merchandising, floral and commercial styling. I am open and happy to talk about it all! www.stylebyrobin.com
Stephanie Thomas, the founder and editor of Cur8able has 25 years of intellectual property she is open and willing to connect with you and serve as a guide for all educational resources, support, as well as styling tips for living with disabilities
In addition to the previous reward listed above, Cur8able will pull all our resources together and put together a personalized look book highlighting brands, styles, and informational material that works just for you!
Would you like to take your Cur8tor Chats to the next level? You can by selecting the Cur8tor or your choice and booking five 30-minute phones calls. Cur8able.com contributors are referred to as Cur8tors, celebrities and influencers living with disabilities outloud and in style! Have you recently become a person with a seated body type? Are you experiencing arthritic flare ups? These are just a few examples, maybe you just need to chat with someone who's been where you're going? If so book a Cur8tor Chat Speak with your favorite Cur8tor. Keep in mind they are in no way providing medical advice or psychological sessions. However, they are available to tell you about their journey as someone born with a disability or someone who has become a person with a disability due to an illness or injury.
Cur8able founder, Stephanie Thomas is a celebrated keynote speaker, on-air personality, and disability fashion styling segment expert. In addition to presenting a TEDx Talk at the third largest TEDx event in Canada, Stephanie has been featured in publications like People and media outlets around the world. Book Stephanie Thomas using this one time only discounted rate. This reward must be booked by Dec 31, 2017. *Does not include airfare and accommodations.