Hello and welcome to today's Design and Technology lesson.

My name's Mrs. Fletcher and I'm really pleased that you decided to join me for this lesson today.

Today's lesson is called Accessible Fasteners and it's part of the Combining Fabrics Accessible Textiles unit.

In this lesson, we'll get to see how the type of fastener used on a textile product can affect its accessibility and how we need to make careful choices and considerations when choosing fasteners for these types of products.

So let's have a look at what we'll be learning about today.

The outcome of today's lesson is I can fasten fabrics effectively.

So we're going to be looking at the different types of fasteners you can use for the pockets of a utility belt product and the pros and cons of using each one, how they might be suitable or unsuitable to make an accessible product.

There are some key words that we're going to need in today's lesson, so let's have a look at those together before we get started.

So first of all, we've got the word fasteners.

Can you repeat that after me? Fasteners.

Well done, and that's the focus of today's lesson and fasteners are temporary ways of joining fabric.

So they're little devices that can be opened and closed as a way of joining and unjoining fabric.

Then we've got the word toggle.

Can you repeat that? Toggle.

Well done, and a toggle is a type of fastener.

It's a bar-shaped fastener that passes through a loop to keep it into place.

So we'll be having a look at those and how they work in today's lesson.

And then we've got the word empathy.

Can you repeat that? Empathy.

Well done.

That's going to be important part of today's lesson.

So empathy is understanding other people's feelings and experiences and it's something that's very important when we come to make design choices is to be able to think about how other people might think and feel when they're using the product.

So those are our key words.

Let's have a look at the lesson.

So the lesson's going to be split into two parts today.

First of all, we're going to be looking at different types of pocket fasteners that we can use on a utility belt product.

And then we're going to be looking at choosing accessible fasteners.

So that's thinking about which type of fastener is best to use for people with different types of needs and with different types of wants from the utility belt product that we are making.

So let's get started by looking at different types of pocket fasteners.

Fasteners are devices that allow us to join fabrics together temporarily.

So that means that they can be unjoined again later.

Can you name any common fasteners? Pause the video and have a think.

Welcome back.

How many did you manage to think of? Well, some of the most common types are buttons, zips, snap buttons, or poppers sometimes they're called, or hook and loop.

Those are the most common types.

You may have thought of some other types of fasteners as well.

Pocket fasteners allow us to open and close the opening of a pocket.

So if we are using them on a pocket design, it allows us to open and close the pocket to keep things inside or to get things out.

Some pocket fasteners include things like tie fasteners.

So you might see a string, a rope, a ribbon, something that is tied around the top of the pocket opening.

You might see snap button fasteners.

You might see toggles, which is one of our new keywords today where we look at that kind of device that passes through a loop in order to keep it attached.

Or it might look like this, which is a more of a mechanical sprung toggle, which you squeeze together and pull along, usually a piece of elasticated string as well.

So those are common types of fasteners that are used particularly for pockets.

A quick check then before we move on, which of these fasteners is more likely to be used on shoes? So thinking about a type of fastener we might use on shoes, would you most likely see a magnetic button, a loop toggle, or a hook and loop fastener? Which of those would be most likely used on shoes? Pause the video and have a think.

Welcome back.

What did you think? Well done if you said hook and loop.

So that kind of fastener that is pressed together and rips apart is quite commonly used on shoes, particularly trainer type shoes.

Well done if you got that right.

So let's have a look at those tie fasteners in a little bit more detail now.

Let's look at the pros and cons of using them.

So if you think about a tie fastener, it could be made up of a ribbon, a little piece of lace, a shoe lace, a piece of cord or even a piece of elastic.

And they're usually threaded through holes so you can see that they're in that top image, just piece of string or the piece of cord is threaded through holes in order to keep it secure.

This means it can be adjusted very easily so it can be tightened or loosened quite easily because they can be pulled through those holes quite easily.

It can be used with a sliding sprung toggle to keep it in place.

So you can see here that type of toggle that's squeezed together in order to loosen it and adjust it, pulling it along those pieces of cord is a good way of securing it.

So it can be used with one of those.

If it is not secured with one of those and it's not been tied into a bow or a knot, then it can come unthreaded.

So that's what a downside of using a tie fastener is.

It can come unthreaded from those holes and it can be quite difficult to thread it back through those holes as well.

Another downside of using tie fasteners is they can get quite easily knotted.

So if you've ever tried to tie shoe laces, you could have seen how they can get into a knot sometimes and it's quite difficult to undo those knots sometimes, particularly if they've been pulled tight.

And it also requires the use of two hands.

So to tie a bow using laces or to tie a knot in any kind of ribbon or cord, you typically need two hands to be able to do that.

So that means that it's only accessible to people who have two free hands in order to tie or untie those knots or bows.

So let's have a look at button fasteners in a little bit more detail now.

So button fasteners come in different styles.

So you can get standard buttons, snap buttons, or poppers sometimes they're called, or magnetic buttons and they all work in slightly different ways so have slightly different uses.

If we look at the standard buttons, they pass through a buttonhole and small ones can be quite fiddly to use.

So if you've got a very small button and small buttonhole, they can be quite difficult to manage, especially if you have some kind of limitation in your mobility of your fingers.

They can be hard to use and it can't be adjusted.

So the button is sewn into place.

The button hole is in a permanent place, so that's where it is fastened.

So you can't really adjust it very easily.

If we look at snap buttons then, they are operated in a different way so they are pressed together in order to secure them.

Again, it's a little bit easier than a standard button, but it can be quite fiddly if it's a small snap button because you need to locate both sides of the button to press together in order to make it work.

So if they're quite small, that can be quite tricky to do and they can weaken over time.

So from repeated use.

So using them over and over again can make them loosen a little bit so they don't fit together quite so securely and they come apart quite easily.

So that can happen over time as well.

Magnetic buttons are a little bit easier to use than both the standard and the snap buttons because you don't have to locate them quite as accurately.

You don't have to put them together as accurately.

You can put them near each other and because they're made from that magnetic material and they're attracted to each other, they will snap together once they get close to each other.

So you don't have to put them in a very precise location.

They will find each other and that makes them very easy to use and they are quite often used in accessible clothing for people who would struggle with standard fasteners.

Just like the snap buttons though, they can weaken over time and that's because magnetic forces can weaken in the material.

So over time, they may not hold as strongly together or they may not attract as quickly together as well because that magnetic force between them has weakened.

Let's have a look at the toggle fasteners then in a little bit more detail.

So toggle fasteners can become as a loop or they can be those sliding sprung toggles so they work in very different ways and would be used for different uses.

So the loop toggle passes through a loop to fasten.

So a little bit like a button passes through a button hole, a loop toggle passes through a loop and then it stays in place because of the shape of that toggle device stops it from sliding out of the loop.

Again, if it's a small toggle or a small loop, it can be quite tricky to use 'cause it's difficult to push that toggle piece through the a small loop.

They are quite secure once they are fastened but they can be quite fiddly to use and the sliding sprung toggles work in a different way.

So in order to use those, that central plastic piece needs to be squeezed together on a spring which opens up the hole in that toggle and then it can slide along the cord that it's attached to so it can slide towards the product in order to tighten that cord and it can be pulled away from the product in order to loosen the cord.

It is quite easy access.

It's 'cause of the sliding mechanism and it's quite easy to open with one hand because you don't need to squeeze and pull.

But if you're trying to fasten it, it can be tricky to do because you need to hold the cord and squeeze that little plastic device in the centre in order to tighten it.

So it can be easy to open but a little bit tricky to fasten if you don't have two free hands in order to do that.

So again, ups and downs of using both of those fasteners.

A quick check before we move on then.

Which of these is a problem if we are using a tie fastener? So is it that they can weaken over time? Is it that they can get knotted, or is it that you need two hands to squeeze and slide in order to fasten it? Pause the video and have a think.

Welcome back.

What did you think? Well done if you said it's that they can get easily knotted.

So any type of tie fastener where we're using a piece of string or cord and is tied into a bow or a knot can easily get stuck in that knotted position.

Well done if you got that correct.

Time for a task now in this first part of the lesson.

So you are going to discuss with your partner or with your group the accessibility, so that's how easy they are to use, of the different types of pocket fasteners that we've looked at in this lesson.

So we can see here the types of pockets in the pictures, those snap buttons, those tie fasteners, those toggle type loop fasteners and the toggle with the sliding spring.

You're going to look at those individually and think and discuss how easy would they be to use.

So you might have some in front of you that you can have a go at, some of those types of fasteners that you can have a play with, discuss together how easy they are to use and have a think about what problems other people might have with using them.

So this is where we need to use our empathy.

We need to imagine that other people are using these and if they've got any types of barriers to using them.

So things that can stop them using them as they are intended.

So discuss what type of problems people might have with using them.

Pause the video while you have a go at that task and come back when you're done.

Welcome back.

How did you get on? Well, Aisha and Sophia have been discussing the uses of some of those pocket fasteners.

Aisha has said that ties, tie fasteners such as cords and laces are not very accessible.

So she thinks they were the least accessible out of those fasteners that we looked at and she thinks that some people would find them tricky to tie and they can get in a knot.

So she doesn't think that those are very accessible at all.

Sophia has been thinking about fiddly fasteners.

So she thinks things like toggles and buttons can be quite fiddly because they're quite difficult to hold, can be quite difficult to pass through the hole or the loop, especially if they're small.

So she's saying that they would not be very suitable for an accessible pocket.

So if we're thinking about how to open and close a pocket, she doesn't think those would be very useful for that kind of use.

You may have had similar ideas or different ideas to Aisha and Sophia.

Well done for discussing them.

Time for the second part of the lesson now.

So in this part of the lesson, we're going to look at choosing accessible fasteners that will be suitable to use on your pockets for your utility belt.

So you'll be thinking about the user and how they will be using the pockets and choosing suitable fasteners that will allow them to access that product easily.

Empathic design.

So that's thinking about other people's thoughts and experiences, considers the possible barriers to accessibility and it tries to make a product accessible to as many people as possible.

So that's the aim of empathic design and an accessible product is that as many people as possible can use it.

Fasteners can be a barrier to accessibility.

So a tricky fastener can make the whole product inaccessible to certain people if they're not chosen carefully with the different users in mind.

So we need to be able to do that in order to make them accessible.

A quick check then, what do we mean by that empathic design? Do we mean we are considering others' experiences? Do we mean we are making products that are accessible to one user or do we mean we are creating barriers to accessibility? Pause the video and have a think.

Welcome back.

What did you think? What do we mean by empathic design? Well, of course, it's considering other people's experiences and also their thoughts and feelings about using a product or about how accessible they are.

Well done if you got that correct.

I want you to think about a standard button.

So that's a standard button, usually a circular shape that passes through a button hole on the other side of the fabric and I want you to consider whether it would be as easy to use if you had arthritis.

So Sophia's reminding us here that arthritis causes the joints to stiffen making them difficult to bend.

So if you consider someone who might have arthritis in their fingers and their fingers are not easily bent and then they find holding things quite difficult, how easy would it be to use a standard button? That's what we're going to think about.

And in order to empathise with that user, you're going to have a go.

So you should have in front of you a product that has a standard button and buttonhole on it and I want you to have a go at fastening and unfastening that button without bending your fingers.

So have a go at using and operating that standard button as if you are someone who struggles with a condition like arthritis, which means you cannot bend your fingers very easily.

Pause the video while you have a go at that and come back when you're done.

Welcome back.

How did you get on? So by having a go yourself and by putting that barrier to accessibility in place, it helps us to empathise, to think about what it's like to be someone with that barrier and that helps us to decide whether this would be a suitable fastener to use on our product if our user has that kind of issue, something like arthritis.

So it puts us in that user's shoes, it helps us to see it from their point of view.

Let's have a go in a different way now then.

So I want you to think about a tie fastener.

So this could be a ribbon, a lace, a shoelace, a cord.

And I want you to think about whether it would be as easy to use if you were an amputee.

So again, Sophia's just making sure we understand that an amputee may have had fingers or hands or arms removed.

So they're missing some of their fingers or limb.

So if that was the user of our product, I want you to think about the barriers they would have and in order to be able to sympathise and empathise with that user, I want you to have a go.

So I want you to try tying a shoe lace.

So you should have a product in front of you that has some kind of tie fastener on it and I want you to try tying that lace using only one hand.

So how easy would it be to access and use a tie fastener if you only had one hand.

Pause the video while you have a go at that task and come back when you're done.

Welcome back.

How did you get on? So you probably found that it was quite tricky to tie a lace or a cord using only one hand and that helps you to think about how someone with those kind of barriers would struggle to use a tie fastener and that might influence a type of fastener you choose for your pocket design.

Let's have a look at those snap button fasteners now, and we'll consider the same type of thing.

Would it be as easy to use a snap button fastener if you had a visual impairment? So Sophia is making sure we understand that a visual impairment means that you have lost some or all of your eyesight so you can't see as well or at all as other people.

So thinking about how you might use a snap button if you had that kind of barrier to accessibility and in order to empathise with that user, you're going to have a go.

So you should have in front of you a product that has a snap button fastener on it and I want you to try locating, so finding the two parts of the snap button fastener and joining them together but with your eyes closed.

So don't look where they are to start with because you wouldn't have that luxury if you did have a visual impairment.

So I want you to close your eyes, locate the snap buttons and fasten them without looking at them at all.

It doesn't mean you can't do it, but you'll get to see how the difficulties of doing that might be.

Pause the video while you have a go and come back when you're finished.

Welcome back.

How did you get on? So you may have been able to eventually locate and close those snap buttons, but we need to think about whether it was as easy to use as it would be if you didn't have a visual impairment.

So you might want to compare it to how quickly you could find and close those snap buttons with your eyes open, compared to how long it took you when you had your eyes closed.

So that gives us the experience of the user to help us empathise with how they would feel.

Quick check before we move on then.

Which fastener would be the most suitable for someone with arthritis? So if we are putting ourselves in the shoes of someone who has arthritis, that limited movement in their joint, which would be the easiest for them to open? A loop toggle, a standard button, or a magnetic button? Which of those would be easiest for them to access? Pause the video and have a think.

Okay, what did you think? Well, I think a magnetic button would definitely be the easiest out of those three because there are no loops or holes to locate, there are no small buttons to hold onto and get a grip of.

So those magnetic buttons locate each other quite quickly.

So they're much easier to use if you have that limited movement.

Well done if you chose that one as well.

Fasteners are also attached in different ways, so attached to the products that they are being used on in different ways.

And you need to think about this when you are choosing suitable fasteners for your product as well because you are going to have to fasten them onto your pocket products.

Tie fasteners need holes around the opening of the pocket to thread the cords through.

So you need to think about how you would be able to make those holes in the fabric you've chosen and how you would stop them from ripping or opening out too wide.

So not all types of fabric are suitable for making holes in for tie fasteners.

So that's something you'd have to think about depending on the fabric you've chosen.

Snap buttons need a special tool to apply them, so you would need to make sure you have that if you're going to use snap buttons.

Loop toggles need to be stitched into place, so you need to think about being able to sew those toggles into a suitable place on your pocket and hook and loop and standard buttons and zips are all stitched into place as well.

So you'd need to be able to work out where they would need to go if there's room to sew them and what sewing technique you would need in order to attach them.

So they're all things to consider when you are choosing a suitable fastener to attach to your pocket product.

Time for a task now in this second part of the lesson.

So first of all, you're going to do some thinking about the type of fastener you're going to choose for your pocket or pockets of your utility belt.

So you're going to consider the applications, that's how you are going to attach them, and the accessibility, so that's how easy they are to use, of the different fasteners that you have tested.

So we've tested a few types of fasteners in today's lesson.

So those are the ones you're going to consider, and you're going to use that knowledge to select suitable fasteners for the pockets on your utility belt.

So you need to think about the user, the person who's going to use your belt, you need to think about how you are going to apply the fasteners, and you're going to think about which ones are best for you to use on your product.

Once you've made that decision, you're going to use the correct method to attach your chosen fasteners to the pockets that you've made for your utility belt.

So if you've chosen a zip or a loop, you're going to sew them.

If you've chosen snap buttons, you'll need to apply them with the pliers, et cetera.

So you are going to choose and then apply those suitable fasteners to your pockets.

Pause the video while you do that task and come back when you've finished.

Welcome back.

How did you get on? Well, Aisha has been making her selection alongside you and she's considered the accessibility of some of the fasteners that we've looked at in today's lesson in order to make her selection.

Now, she's got two pockets on her utility belt.

So she's chosen two types of fastener that she thinks will be accessible to her user.

So she's chosen a hook and loop fastener because it's easy to open and close and it's easy to adjust as well.

So the placement of the fastener can be easily changed by the user.

And she's also chosen a magnetic button so she's chosen that because they're easier to use than snap buttons because they're not as fiddly and they're easy to use than standard buttons as well.

So she's made those two selections based on her experience in today's lesson and based on the empathy she has for the user of her product.

Hopefully you've managed to choose suitable fasteners for your product and you have managed to attach them correctly to your pockets.

Well done if you've got to that stage.

So we have come to the end of today's lesson where we have been looking at different types of fasteners that we can use on a pocket product, and we've been looking at how we need to choose those pocket fasteners very carefully in order to suit the needs of the user and to make them accessible to the user of our pocket, on our utility belt.

We've looked at different types of pocket fasteners.

So we've learned that toggles can be used, ties can be used, and buttons can all be used as pocket fasteners.

And we've learned that pocket fasteners should be chosen for design purposes.

So when we say that, we mean they need to be chosen for how they will be applied to the product, but they also need to be chosen to be suitable for the user and to make sure they can be used, ultimately, by the person who is going to use them.

Empathic design.

So that considering other people when we make our choices, considers the possible barriers to accessibility.

So the things that will stand in the way of them using our product, and it tries to make the product accessible to as many people as possible.

So that empathic design really is key to making sure we make suitable choices for products like this.

Thank you for joining me for today's lesson.

I've had fun selecting and choosing our different types of fasteners.

I hope to see you in another lesson, but it's goodbye for now.

Goodbye.