The Next Revolution in Design: Emotional Accessibility

Originally published for Fast Company Impact Council. The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of top leaders and experts who pay dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership, and more.

12/01/2025

Why the future of accessible design depends on how products make us feel 

By Ben Wintner

Accessibility used to mean compliance. A grab bar installed, a ramp added, a font resized. 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 make them unhappy. Poor design like this eliminates the potential utility gain of a product, 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. We strive for people to see our products and say things like “ooooh that’s nice” 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

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, remain foundational to accessibility. 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 kind of 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. 

Designing for the Top of the Pyramid

At Michael Graves Design, our approach begins with empathy and ends 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 they also meet 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 ergonomic tools universally loved, 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.

Completing 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, intuitive gestures, these 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 builds on that foundation to create connection.

As AI accelerates efficiency, the next design revolution can’t just be faster, it must be warmer, which is 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.

Link to Fast Company: https://www.fastcompany.com/91451256/the-next-revolution-in-design-emotional-accessibility