Most products, services, and systems are designed around a composite of the “average” user. That sounds logical. If you are trying to serve the largest possible market, why wouldn’t you design for the middle?

The dilemma is that the composite often fails to reflect how people actually live or experience the world. Those differences can expose where products, services, and systems work well, and where they do not.

Design innovation comes from many places. Accessibility should be one of them. It is a powerful lens, revealing friction, hidden assumptions, and opportunities that are easy to miss when we design only for the middle. Solutions developed for people who face the greatest barriers can make products better for the mainstream as well.

Consider the familiar examples. Curb cuts were initially introduced to make sidewalks accessible to wheelchair users. They now also serve people pushing strollers, travelers with luggage, and workers moving carts. Closed captions are essential for people who are deaf or hard of hearing, and useful in noisy airports and quiet offices. Voice controls can be indispensable for someone with limited dexterity and convenient for anyone whose hands are occupied.

OXO, the maker of Good Grips kitchen utensils, offers a compelling business example. When founder Sam Farber saw his wife struggling to use a conventional vegetable peeler because of her arthritis, he recognized an opportunity to rethink an everyday product. The resulting Good Grips utensils—with their comfortable, easy-to-hold handles—addressed limited dexterity while appealing to consumers of all abilities. What began with one person’s difficulty became the foundation of a successful mainstream consumer brand.

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