The Accessibility Gap: Why Beauty Products Still Don’t Work For Everyone

The beauty industry is overlooking accessibility, usability, and lived experience. And it's costing the disability community. 

 

TL;DR (What this article covers):

• Most beauty brands are still prioritising how products look over how easy they are to open and apply.
• Accessible beauty tools reduce strain, improve grip, open easily, and work across different bodies and energy levels.
• Accessibility is not one-size-fits-all. Needs vary day to day and person to person.
  
• The beauty industry lacks accessibility guidelines, leaving a major design gap.
• ByStorm designs with disabled people from the start to solve real, lived barriers.
• Accessible beauty should still feel beautiful, dignified, and joyful.

 

“Inclusive” has become one of beauty’s favourite words. It appears in campaign copy, product launches, shade-range announcements. But when it comes to tools and packaging, true accessibility is still rarely considered. Inclusion is visible, but accessibility is not. So the question becomes: why doesn’t inclusion seem to include accessibility?

It’s because true accessibility can’t be achieved by a marketing claim. It exists in details like how easily something opens or how intuitive it is when energy is low or movement is limited. 

So many brands speak about inclusion, but few stop to ask a more practical question: can people actually use this confidently? Open it easily?

ByStorm is eager to be the educator that redefines accessibility. Moving away from viewing it as something complex or technical and instead offering much-needed visibility. Because once you understand what accessibility really means, it’s hard not to notice how often it’s missing.

 

What makes beauty accessible?

At its core, accessibility means that a product can be used by people with different bodies, abilities, energy levels, and needs without pain or strain. For us, it’s about designing beauty tools and packaging that are easy to use  for a wide range of bodies and hands. Practically speaking, accessible beauty often includes:

• Clear navigation
  Products that are easy to orient and understand without trial and error.
• Easy-to-read labels
  Larger font sizes, strong colour contrast, and clear typography that support people with visual or cognitive processing differences to read labels independently.
• Tactile cues and braille
  Raised markers or braille that support blind and low-vision users to identify products independently.
• Grip stability
  Shapes and materials that support unsteady hands, tremors or reduced strength.
• Easy-to-open packaging
  Closures that don’t require a pinch grip, twisting force or excessive pressure.
• Pain-free use
  Designs that reduce strain on wrists, fingers and joints over time.
• Intuitive shape and orientation
  Tools that naturally guide the hand without requiring precision or perfect coordination.
• Ease of cleaning
  Fewer fiddly parts, smoother surfaces and materials that are simple to maintain.
• Adaptability
  Products that work across different mobility levels.

 

What accessibility is not

Where many beauty brands go wrong is by mistaking aesthetics or ergonomic assumptions for usability. Part of the problem is that “inclusive,” "accessible," and “adaptive” design are often blurred together when they mean very different things. 

Inclusion tends to focus on who is represented or considered; accessibility asks whether someone can actually use a product independently; and adaptation refers to the workarounds or extra tools people need when a product hasn’t been designed for them in the first place. 

When these distinctions are overlooked, usability isn’t tested and the same design traps appear over and over again:

• Slippery tubes that look sleek but are hard to hold
• Tiny lids that require finger strength or a precise pinch grip
• Overly tight caps that demand wrist torque
• Fiddly components that fall apart or require two-handed coordination
• No tactile markers for blind or low-vision users
• Ergonomic claims made without testing with disabled users

Too often, inclusive design stops once a brand has settled on how something will look, who it’s marketed to, or what it represents rather than how it actually works in someone’s hands. 

 

Accessibility isn’t one-size-fits-all

Disability and physical limitation aren’t homogeneous and neither are people’s lives, routines or bodies. Two individuals might share the same diagnosis and still experience completely different challenges day to day. Good design acknowledges this.

• Limited wrist mobility?
  Benefits from stable grips, reduced twisting, and balanced weight.
• Limited finger mobility?
  Requires larger surfaces, easy-open mechanisms, and fewer fine motor demands.
• Shakiness or tremors?
  Calls for added weight, stability, and tolerance for movement.
• Chronic pain and fatigue?
  Makes low-effort, low-strain design essential — especially on high-symptom days.
• Blind or low-vision users?
  Rely on audio instructions, braille, tactile cues, and/or consistent shape language to navigate independently.
• People managing flare-ups?
  Often avoid anything fiddly or demanding, even if they can technically use it on a good day.

Accessible beauty recognises that people’s needs shift throughout life and day by day, and design should accommodate that reality.

 

What ByStorm does differently

One of the biggest insights behind ByStorm’s approach is that there are no established accessibility guidelines for beauty tools. This category is still new. There’s no design rulebook to follow.

This allowed the process to be built collaboratively with disabled people involved from the start. Designing with the community, rather than for it, meant that we could improve lives straight away.

In practice, that looks like:

• Dual mobility options
  Tools designed to work for users with different levels of strength and control.
• Braille on packaging
  Supporting independence for blind and low-vision users.
• QR codes with audio descriptions
  Offering product guidance in accessible formats.
• Universal fit
  Compatibility across common beauty products reducing the need for specialised alternatives.
• Custom-mouldable, non-slip grip
  Allowing users to adapt the tool to their own hand and comfort needs.
• Easy-open design
  Minimising strain, twisting and force.

Each feature exists to solve a specific, lived barrier share from direct conversations and feedback. It solidifies the ByStorm philosophy that function alone isn’t enough. Accessible products should still feel beautiful, dignified, and joyful.

 

Real stories our community have shared

Meet Holly
In the past, doing her makeup quietly eroded Holly’s independence. Something as simple as opening products meant asking for help, waiting for someone else, reshaping her routine around what her body could manage that day. It also took time. Even the simplest makeup look could stretch to 30 minutes. Now, her routine is hers again. She applies her makeup fully independently, with control and confidence, and what once felt effortful now takes half the time. It’s a small shift with a big impact – one part of her day that belongs entirely to her.

Meet Bryony
Makeup has always been Bryony’s creative outlet but living with seizures means there are days when her hands don’t cooperate and safety becomes a concern. For a long time, that made beauty feel out of reach. Using an inclusive tool changed that – giving her back the ability to apply makeup safely and independently even on harder days. For Bryony, accessible makeup offers the freedom to keep doing something she loves, to express herself on her own terms, and to be reminded that beauty should always be about joy and not dependant on whether you’re able enough.

 

The beauty industry’s glaring gap

For years, beauty has mistaken representation for accessibility. Campaigns do matter but inclusion doesn’t end at the photoshoot. 

As ByStorm founder, Storm, puts it: brands don’t ignore accessibility out of malice. It simply hasn’t been part of the system. Disabled voices were excluded for so long that many companies didn’t even know there was a problem. And when accessibility is considered, it’s often reduced to basic utility and stripped of the aesthetic and joy we know and love from the beauty world.

Small, thoughtful design changes made now can open access for more people today and continue to improve as lived experience leads the way. If the industry is serious about inclusion, the bar has to rise and it starts with design-led inclusive beauty brands

Shop the grip collection here.

 

About ByStorm

ByStorm is an Australian accessible beauty brand designing makeup tools that work with all bodies.

ByStorm creates makeup tools for people with disability, chronic illness, arthritis, tremors, injury, ageing hands, and anyone who struggles with grip, twisting, fatigue or control.

Our grip tools make everyday beauty routines easier and more comfortable, without compromising aesthetics or joy.

 

Accessibility support:

We are always looking to improve our accessibility across all of our content. If you need this content in another format or there are issues with accessibility please get in touch with us: hello@bystormbeauty.com