Open Style Lab
Nominee Profile
Location: London
Open Style Lab (OSL) is a disability-led charity transforming design education and industry so that accessibility becomes recognised as a standard of good design. Brought to the UK in 2025 from the US, OSL builds on over 10 years of experience in inclusive design, co-design, education, and public engagement.
At the heart of OSL’s work is the belief that lived experience is expertise. Through its Impact Fellowship Programme, OSL brings together disabled experts, designers, engineers, occupational therapists, and multidisciplinary creatives to co-design stylish, functional solutions to real accessibility challenges around dressing, mobility, dexterity, sensory needs, wearability, and self-expression. Disabled fellows are not treated as end users or consultants, but as collaborators and decision-makers shaping the creative process.
OSL challenges the idea that accessible design should prioritise function over style. Its work recognises that beauty, confidence, dignity, independence, and self-expression are essential to meaningful design. By combining human-centred design, prototyping, material testing, and disability-led insight, OSL equips fellows to apply inclusive design in their future work across fashion, design, academia, and industry.
OSL’s impact extends beyond individual projects. Its fellowships build a community of future leaders and changemakers, making disabled talent more visible within fashion and design while helping industry partners rethink accessibility from the start. OSL’s work has been showcased internationally, including at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Through education, collaboration, and public engagement, Open Style Lab is helping redefine accessibility as beautiful, innovative, and fundamental to good design.
At the heart of OSL’s work is the belief that lived experience is expertise. Through its Impact Fellowship Programme, OSL brings together disabled experts, designers, engineers, occupational therapists, and multidisciplinary creatives to co-design stylish, functional solutions to real accessibility challenges around dressing, mobility, dexterity, sensory needs, wearability, and self-expression. Disabled fellows are not treated as end users or consultants, but as collaborators and decision-makers shaping the creative process.
OSL challenges the idea that accessible design should prioritise function over style. Its work recognises that beauty, confidence, dignity, independence, and self-expression are essential to meaningful design. By combining human-centred design, prototyping, material testing, and disability-led insight, OSL equips fellows to apply inclusive design in their future work across fashion, design, academia, and industry.
OSL’s impact extends beyond individual projects. Its fellowships build a community of future leaders and changemakers, making disabled talent more visible within fashion and design while helping industry partners rethink accessibility from the start. OSL’s work has been showcased internationally, including at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Through education, collaboration, and public engagement, Open Style Lab is helping redefine accessibility as beautiful, innovative, and fundamental to good design.