Accessibility used to mean compliance. An installed grab bar, an added ramp, a resized font. But meeting physical standards is only half the challenge. The other half, the part that truly changes lives, is how design makes people feel.
That’s where emotional accessibility comes in. It’s what Michael Graves taught us to do 40 years ago. We believe it is the next frontier of design: creating experiences that don’t just accommodate users but also affirm, reassure, and delight them.
When we talk about accessibility, we’re really talking about belonging. And belonging is emotional. A product can meet every ergonomic and ADA guideline yet still make someone feel excluded and unhappy. Poor design like this eliminates a product’s potential utility gain, if the experience of using it blocks adoption. Conversely, an object that’s emotionally intuitive, clear, comforting, and joyful, invites people in before they ever touch it. For instance, we think about the affect our products will have when someone is out using them. We want the response a C-Grip Cane user gets from others to be “ooooh nice product” rather than “awwww what’s wrong?”
At Michael Graves Design, we’ve spent decades proving that good design isn’t a luxury; it’s a right. But as the democratization of design has evolved, so too have consumer expectations. People no longer want just functional enhancement; they want emotional inclusion. They want to feel seen and feel good.
THE LIMITS OF UNIVERSAL DESIGN
These are the well-known Seven Principles of Universal Design: equitable use, flexibility in use, simple and intuitive operation, perceptible information, tolerance for error, low physical effort, and appropriate size and space. They remain foundational to accessibility and their influence on architecture, product design, and public spaces is profound.
But here’s the paradox. Products that fully embody those principles often work well, yet fail to connect. They can feel sterile, institutional, even medicalized. Users may appreciate their utility but reject them emotionally. The result is a design irony—perfectly “universal” products that no one wants to use.
Universal Design succeeds at the bottom of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, addressing physiological and safety needs. But to destigmatize aging and disability, and to earn genuine consumer buy-in, design must move up the pyramid, to love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization.
That’s where emotional accessibility lives. It bridges the gap between function and feeling, making accessible products not just usable, but desirable, just like every great consumer product.
DESIGN FOR THE TOP OF THE PYRAMID
Here’s how we approach it at Michael Graves Design. We begin with empathy and end with emotion. We ask not only how a product works, but how it feels to use it.
Our line of bathroom safety products for Pottery Barn meets ADA and Universal Design benchmarks. But it also meets a higher human need: dignity. By integrating safety into standard objects like towel bars and toilet paper holders, and by designing with finishes like polished nickel and matte black—materials associated with lifestyle-based bathroom design, not limitation—we transformed necessary aids into objects people want in their homes.
Customers tell us they feel proud of these pieces. Emotional connection leads to real adoption, which means the products actually achieved their purpose. Emotional accessibility doesn’t just enhance desirability, it is the key that unlocks utility.
WHY FEELINGS ARE FUNCTIONAL
The case for emotional accessibility isn’t sentimental; it’s strategic. As AI and automation permeate all facets of life, including product design, consumers crave something technology can’t simulate: empathy.
Brands that design for emotion build trust and loyalty. Think OXO’s Good Grips, which made universally loved ergonomic tools, or Apple’s tactile, intuitive products that make people feel capable rather than confused. These succeed because they feel human.
Emotional accessibility acknowledges that comfort, delight, and pride aren’t luxuries. They’re essential enablers of adoption. When people feel good using a product, they use it more often, for longer, and with deeper attachment. These are the highest benchmarks in brand building.
COMPLETE THE UNIVERSAL DESIGN FRAMEWORK
Emotional accessibility doesn’t replace Universal Design; it completes it. Together, they meet the full range of human needs, from survival to self-expression. Here are three ways to integrate it into any design process:
1. Design with emotional verbs
In every design brief, define not only what the product does, but how it should make people feel. Should it reassure? Inspire? Empower? Delight? These verbs guide form, material, and personality.
2. Prototype for emotion
Test for more than usability. Observe posture, expression, and language. Ask, “How did this make you feel?” Answers like comfortable or proud, as compared to stable or competent, show that the product has reached higher up Maslow’s pyramid.
3. Translate dignity into design language
Balanced proportions, tactile warmth, and intuitive gestures communicate respect. They tell users, “You belong here.”
THE FUTURE OF ACCESSIBLE DESIGN
The Seven Principles of Universal Design built the foundation for access in the built environment. Emotional accessibility adds to that foundation to create connection.
As AI accelerates efficiency, the next design revolution can’t just be faster, it must be warmer, an essential human contribution.
If Universal Design made products usable by everyone, emotional accessibility will make them desirable to everyone. It’s how we move from safety to self-expression, from compliance to connection, from design that works to design that cares.
Because in the end, the most universal design is the one that makes everyone feel welcome and represented.
Ben Wintner is CEO of Michael Graves Design.
