AbleFly CEO: Accessibility Is a Design Strategy, Not a Side Project

Sam Farber watched his wife struggle to peel vegetables because of her arthritis — and that single moment of friction built OXO's Good Grips into a mainstream consumer brand. It is the clearest proof point in a new argument from Gail Zauder, cofounder and CEO of AbleFly, who contends that accessibility is one of the most underrated engines of design innovation.

Her case starts with a structural flaw in how most products get built. Companies design for a composite of the "average" user because it seems logical: serve the largest possible market by designing for the middle. But Zauder argues that composite often fails to reflect how people actually live and experience the world.

That gap is where opportunity hides. Accessibility, she writes, is "a powerful lens, revealing friction, hidden assumptions, and opportunities that are easy to miss when we design only for the middle." Solutions built for people facing the greatest barriers routinely make products better for everyone.

What does constraint-driven design look like in practice?

Zauder points to familiar, verifiable examples:

• Curb cuts were introduced to make sidewalks accessible to wheelchair users. They now 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 are indispensable for someone with limited dexterity and convenient for anyone whose hands are occupied.

The OXO story follows the same pattern. Farber saw his wife's difficulty with a conventional vegetable peeler, recognized an opportunity to rethink an everyday product, and produced Good Grips utensils with comfortable, easy-to-hold handles. The line addressed limited dexterity while appealing to consumers of all abilities. What began with one person's difficulty became the foundation of a successful mainstream brand.

The takeaway in plain words: design around constraints and you get simpler, more intuitive products — and the benefits don't stop with the people whose needs inspired them.

Can overlooked needs reveal new markets?

Zauder thinks so, and she pushes the argument beyond product improvements. When companies study needs that are not being met, they may discover markets they have overlooked. What looks like a narrow market can reveal broader demand and inspire new products, services, or business models.

Her challenge to executives: rethink what the mainstream market really includes, rather than assuming existing customers represent everyone who might benefit.

That requires changing when accessibility enters the process. It needs to influence choices at the beginning, when companies define the problem and imagine the solution — not after the basic design is settled. Zauder wants people with different needs and abilities involved in those early decisions, because their perspectives "can challenge assumptions and reveal possibilities that might otherwise remain invisible."

The goal is not a separate product for every circumstance. It is a richer understanding of what good design can accomplish.

Why is this urgent now?

Demographics are doing the selling. Populations are aging, Zauder notes, and expectations around independence and participation are changing. More customers expect products and services to fit the way they live rather than adapting themselves to rigid systems.

In her sharpest line, she writes: "The edges of the market are moving closer to the center." What once seemed like a niche need may point to a much larger opportunity.

For business leaders, Zauder rejects the framing that accessibility and mainstream design are competing priorities. "That is a false distinction," she writes. The real opportunity is making accessibility part of the thinking that shapes products from the outset — meeting overlooked needs while building something more useful for a broader population.

Her closing standard for executives is a question, not a metric: "The best design begins by asking who has been left out of the design in the first place."