Story by Logan Jackson

Published on April 28, 2025

In his mid-20s, one of Emma Nicoson’s best friends learned that he was suffering from retinitis pigmentosa, a rare and progressive eye disease that leads to the deterioration of the retinas. A simple request from that friend made Nicoson come to an important realization.

“My friend was looking for a new outfit for an upcoming job interview and wanted me to tag along,” Nicoson said. “The entire time I was trying to figure out how to describe the clothing to him. I had built a career in fashion and was still struggling to explain things. Picking out clothes is a fairly easy task – unless you’re visually impaired.

“When I went back to get my master’s degree, that moment stuck out to me. I was looking for research that would give me meaning and purpose. I realized that there wasn’t much being done in this space, as far as aiding visually impaired individuals with fashion choices.”

Nicoson earned her master’s degree from Indiana State University in 2022 and is in her second year as a doctoral student – in textile and apparel management – at Mizzou. Her research, which focuses on improving accessibility and inclusion for the blind and visually impaired within the field of fashion, has been expansive as a Tiger. She will be able to expand on that work even further after being named an American-Scandinavian Foundation Fellow.

“I’m really thankful to the Mizzou Office of Global and National Fellowships for bringing this opportunity to my attention,” Nicoson said. “I was looking for an international opportunity and after a couple of opportunities didn’t materialize, the team over there let me know about this fellowship. I tweaked a few of my applications and my mentors were willing to provide updated material, which I’m so thankful for.”

As an American-Scandinavian Foundation Fellow, Nicoson will spend a year in Norway, specifically at the University of Oslo. She will be learning from a team of blind computer scientists and partnering with the Department of Informatics at Oslo. Nicoson will also be doing some nonprofit work with a rehabilitation service organization for the blind.

“I really want to study their digital accessibility laws because they have such a high standard and their government does hold businesses and agencies accountable if their websites aren’t compliant,” Nicoson said. “I’m very excited to learn how they enforce those laws and how they work with groups on complying.”

Nicoson’s passion for a fashion began when she was young. She asked her parents for a sewing machine when she was just 9 years old.  

“I don’t know why I asked for one, but I was soon ripping things apart and creating something new,” Nicoson said. “I’m pretty sure it drove my parents crazy. I then had a really cool sewing mentor in high school who helped me take my work to the next level.”

Nicoson eventually earned bachelor’s degrees in marketing digital analytics and apparel design from Indiana State University and soon found herself in New York City working at Kleinfeld Bridal, a bridal salon made famous from being featured on “Say Yes to the Dress.” Nicoson had interned with Kleinfeld Bridal as an undergraduate student and served as an alterations manager as an employee.

Nicoson also spent time in Italy working and learning more about the fashion industry.

“I’m thankful that I’ve been able to mesh my interest in fashion and my desire to aid those who are blind of visually impaired,” Nicoson said. “All individuals should be able to express themselves through their fashion choices.”

Nicoson has presented her research in multiple venues and published several papers tied to her work. She’s researched the shopping experience for the blind and visually impaired on various websites and is currently looking at the mobile experience for those same websites. Nicoson also worked with a blind female teenager on creating a prom dress from scratch and has a follow-up project with the teenager related to discussing her apparel identity. Another project has Nicoson interviewing 10 blind and visually impaired females who are describing what their wedding dresses will look like, with a focus on showing that vision loss covers many different spectrums.

Her previous research has set the stage for her work as an American-Scandinavian Foundation Fellow.

“The point of research is to move society forward,” Nicoson said. “It’s been really important to do what we can to shine a light on this and, hopefully, create more access for those who are visually impaired or blind.”