OXO Good Grips

People with arthritis and limited grip strength use OXO Good Grips kitchen tools because a woman with arthritis co-designed handles that fit hands that hurt, then became the research subject in the product's conventional story.

ENABLE Model location

• Builder-side Interventions → Design Accessible Experiences
• Navigator-side Compensations → Switch to an Alternative

What it is

OXO International was founded in 1990 by Sam Farber, a retired housewares executive, after watching his wife Betsey struggle to grip a metal vegetable peeler due to arthritis in her hands. Farber hired Smart Design, a New York industrial design firm, to create a line of kitchen tools that anyone could use regardless of hand strength or dexterity.¹² Betsey Farber co-designed the tools, helped name the company, and designed the logo, though this role is underemphasized in the conventional telling of the origin story.³

The first Good Grips line launched with 15 products in 1990, the same year Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act.⁴ The signature feature was a wide, oval-shaped handle made of soft rubber with flexible fins for the thumb, replacing the thin metal handles that caused pain for people with arthritis and limited grip strength.¹ The OXO Good Grips swivel peeler was inducted into the Museum of Modern Art's permanent collection in 1994 and named one of the 100 Great Designs of Modern Times by Fortune magazine and the IIT Institute of Design.⁵

The design team at Smart Design included Dan Formosa, Davin Stowell, Tucker Viemeister, and Michael Callahan. Formosa conducted usability studies with people with arthritis. The first prototype was a metal potato peeler inserted into a rubber bicycle handlebar grip. The final design used Santoprene thermoplastic rubber with flexible fins shaped to distribute grip pressure across the hand.⁶⁷ Formosa later described the methodology: "What we really need to do, to design, is look at the extremes. The weakest, or the person with arthritis, or the athlete, or the strongest, the fastest person, because if we understand what the extremes, the middle will take care of itself."⁶

OXO now produces over 1,000 products across kitchen, cleaning, and storage categories. Helen of Troy Limited acquired OXO International from WKI Holding Company for $273 million in cash in June 2004, when OXO's annual sales exceeded $100 million.²⁸ The Good Grips line remains the company's core product family. Smart Design described its partnership with OXO as having "introduced the concept of Universal Design to mass retail."⁵

The Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum acquired Good Grips prototypes in 2011 and displayed them in its "Beautiful Users" exhibition in 2014.⁷ The V&A in London displayed original OXO Good Grips prototypes in its "Design and Disability" exhibition (June 2025 -- February 2026), alongside 170 objects spanning disability design and culture from the 1940s to the present. The V&A credited the prototypes to "Betsey and Sam Farber with Smart Design."⁹

The ENABLE Model observes OXO Good Grips at two locations. On the builder-side, it is a design intervention: the point where a product's form, materials, and interaction patterns are decided. On the navigator-side, it is a switch to alternative: people with arthritis and limited grip strength abandon standard kitchen tools that hurt their hands and buy OXO instead. The Good Grips line is a case where a builder-side design intervention and a navigator-side switch converge in the same product.

Merchandising barriers

Primark shows the inverse merchandising barrier. Primark marks adaptive stock through dedicated fixtures, separate signage, and selective rollout, which helps discovery but can still increase discovery labor through segregation. OXO hides disability at the shelf, which broadens mainstream appeal but increases discovery labor through invisibility. In both cases, merchandising choices shape who can find the accessible option without extra work.

Why it matters

OXO Good Grips is the example industrial design education reaches for when it wants to demonstrate that designing for disability benefits everyone. The tools are in MoMA's permanent collection and the Cooper Hewitt. People with arthritis and limited grip strength use them. In the conventional telling, a non-disabled man hired designers after watching his disabled wife struggle with a vegetable peeler. In that story, she is the occasion for the insight; a research subject. But she was the co-designer.

No published outcome studies measure OXO Good Grips' specific impact on disabled people's lives. A 2009 Cochrane review of assistive technology for rheumatoid arthritis found "very limited evidence" across the field and "urgent need for high-quality research."¹⁰ Yet, the underlying design principle is validated at the level of mechanism: built-up handles measurably reduce the active range of motion required to grip kitchen tools, the core mechanism for people with arthritis and limited hand strength.¹¹ After the Arthritis Foundation gave OXO early recognition for its design, OXO removed the endorsement from packaging and advertising. The disability association was deterring non-disabled buyers.¹² OXO claims the disability origin in design curricula and museum collections. It does not claim it at the shelf.

The origin story told in industrial design curriculum erases the disabled co-designer. In the conventional telling, Sam Farber watched his wife Betsey struggle with a vegetable peeler, felt empathy, and hired designers to fix the problem. Betsey is the inspiration. Sam is the actor. Smart Design is the innovator. The disabled woman is the occasion for the non-disabled man's insight. The disability dongles page documents what happens when non-disabled designers build for disabled people without them. OXO is the opposite: the disabled person built the product. But the narrative is told as if she did not. The non-disabled person is the hero. The disabled person is the beneficiary. In 2018, Liz Jackson called Betsey Farber and asked her to tell the OXO story from her own perspective. Betsey's response: "I'm going to go down in history as being Sam's lowly, crippled wife and it was actually my idea in the first place."¹³ Betsey had improvised a more comfortable handle using clay before bringing the idea to Sam. She co-designed the tools, helped name the company, and designed the logo.³ Matt May, Adobe's Head of Inclusive Design, called the conventional narrative "a fiction on the part of OXO that obscures an important fact."³

The story is told in industrial design curriculum as an example of user-centered requirement-setting and design. In every retelling, the disabled person is the research subject. She is the problem the designer observed.

The credit erasure has since been documented and named. Bess Williamson, a design historian, revised her book Accessible America: A History of Disability and Design in final copy edits after Jackson's interviews with Betsey. The revised text reads: "the black rubber-handled OXO Good Grips vegetable peeler, developed in 1989 by Betsey Farber, who had arthritis, with her husband, Sam."¹⁴ Williamson rearranged the names to give the disabled designer primary credit. Jackson published "We Are the Original Lifehackers" in the New York Times in 2018, arguing that disabled people have always been designers and that their contributions are systematically obscured.¹⁵ When Jackson presented this research in her Interaction 19 keynote, "Empathy Reifies Disability Stigmas," she used the OXO story as the central example of how empathy-driven design narratives position disabled people as beneficiaries rather than builders.¹³ This is disinformation and misinformation at the level of content: the story told about the product misrepresents who built it.

The "curb cut effect" framing compounds this. OXO is cited as evidence that products designed for disabled people benefit everyone. It's like the curb cut built for wheelchair users that also helps parents with strollers, delivery workers with carts, and travelers with luggage. Yes, Good Grips tools are easier for more people to use. But the commercial strategy made the disability origin invisible on purpose. Patricia Moore, a gerontologist and industrial designer who consulted on Good Grips, said: "We didn't go into the marketplace shouting that it was for disabled consumers."⁴ The $273 million acquisition price is cited as proof that accessibility-driven design is commercially viable. It is also evidence that the viability required hiding the accessibility. Disability becomes valuable because it produces insights that benefit non-disabled consumers. The disabled person's pain is the raw material. The commercial product is the output. The person who had the pain and the idea is credited last or not at all.

The marketing strategy that hid the disability origin also hid the product from the people who need it most. OXO does not market to disabled consumers. The packaging does not say "for arthritis." The retail placement is general housewares, not adaptive equipment. A person with arthritis browsing the kitchen aisle encounters OXO alongside every other peeler and has no way to know, from the product or its shelf position, that this one was designed for her hands. She finds it through another person with arthritis, an occupational therapist, or trial and error. The navigator-side switch to alternative happens despite the builder's marketing, not because of it. The same commercial strategy that made OXO a $273 million brand made the product harder for disabled people to find. The builder designed for disability and then made disability invisible so that non-disabled consumers would buy the product too. The disabled consumer carries the discovery labor.

Dan Formosa's design and testing methodology is a genuine contribution to builder-side practice. "What we need to do to design is to look at the extremes. The middle will take care of itself."⁶ When a design team focuses on extreme users, it leads to insights that benefit all users. The question the ENABLE Model asks is who is recognized as the source of the insight. Formosa, Stowell, Viemeister, and Callahan are credited as the designers. Betsey Farber, who lived with the disability, improvised the first solution, brought the idea to her husband, and co-designed the products, was credited as the wife.

Real-world examples

In the news

The untold story of the vegetable peeler that changed the world (2018)
-- Mark Wilson, Fast Company

• Fast Company published the OXO origin story with the framing that the "untold" part was the design process itself. The article centers Sam Farber's decision to hire Smart Design and the firm's design methodology. Betsey Farber's role as co-designer is not foregrounded. The narrative structure (non-disabled executive acts on behalf of disabled wife) is the standard retelling that Liz Jackson and Matt May have critiqued.

In the news

From fashion to fidget spinners, this London exhibition celebrates disabled design, innovation and joy (2025)
-- Ella Feldman, Smithsonian Magazine

• Smithsonian Magazine covered the V&A's "Design and Disability" exhibition, which displayed original OXO Good Grips prototypes alongside 170 objects spanning disability design and culture. The exhibition credited the prototypes to "Betsey and Sam Farber with Smart Design," placing the disabled co-designer's name first. The show framed disability as a source of design innovation, not a problem to be solved.

• Liz Jackson called Betsey Farber in 2018 and learned the OXO idea had been Betsey's. Jackson presented this in her Interaction 19 keynote and published "We Are the Original Lifehackers" in the New York Times, arguing that disabled people are original designers whose contributions are erased.¹³¹⁵
• Matt May, Adobe's Head of Inclusive Design, called OXO's conventional origin story "a fiction" that obscures Betsey Farber's role as co-designer.³
• Bess Williamson revised Accessible America to give Betsey Farber primary credit for the design of OXO Good Grips after Jackson's interviews.¹⁴
• The Cooper Hewitt acquired Good Grips prototypes in 2011. The museum's collection record credits Davin Stowell and Daniel Formosa of Smart Design as designers. Betsey Farber is not listed.⁷
• The OXO Good Grips swivel peeler was inducted into MoMA's permanent collection in 1994 and ranked sixth among the 100 Greatest Designs of Modern Times by Fortune magazine and the IIT Institute of Design.⁵

What care sounds like (builder-side interventions)

Care at the design stage involves building products that work for disabled people and crediting the disabled people who shaped them:

• "We've visited hundreds of homes and spoken to thousands of people to study how they use products." -- Smart Design⁵
• "What we really need to do, to design, is look at the extremes...if we understand what the extremes are, the middle will take care of itself." -- Dan Formosa⁶
• "Betsey Farber was previously Director of Design of OXO and was part of the process, and many disabled people contributed to the prototypes through Smart Design's focus groups." -- V&A exhibition text⁹
• "We tested this with people with arthritis before we finalized the handle."
• "The disabled person who had the insight is named as the designer, not as the inspiration."

What neglect sounds like (builder-side interventions)

Neglect at the design and content stages involves building products without disabled people or erasing their contributions after the fact:

• "He watched his wife struggle and decided to do something about it." *1
• "She had the idea and we built it, but we'll say he saw a need and hired designers." *2
• "A disabled person made the prototype. We'll say the design firm created the solution." *3
• "We didn't go into the marketplace shouting that it was for disabled consumers." *4

*1: The conventional OXO narrative positions the non-disabled husband as the actor and the disabled wife as the occasion. But Betsey Farber improvised the first solution, brought the idea to Sam, co-designed the tools, named the company, and designed the logo.³¹³
*2: The disabled co-designer's contribution is reattributed to the non-disabled founder. The story told about the product misrepresents who built it. This is disinformation at the level of content.³¹³
*3: When the firm takes credit and the disabled person becomes the "need," the narrative reproduces the structure the product itself overcame. Betsey Farber told Liz Jackson: "I'm going to go down in history as being Sam's lowly, crippled wife and it was actually my idea in the first place."¹³
*4: When the builder hides the disability origin to broaden appeal, the person who needs the product the most has no way to find it from the packaging, the shelf position, or the marketing. The disabled navigator carries additional discovery labor.

What compensation sounds like (navigator-side compensations)

Compensation describes the labor disabled people carry when kitchen tools are not designed for their bodies -- and the discovery labor they carry when a tool that was designed for them is not marketed to them:

• "I wrap rubber bands around the handle so I can grip it."
• "I bought a special peeler because the standard one makes my hands ache after two minutes."
• "I ask someone else to open jars because the lids are too small and too smooth for my grip strength."
• "I stopped cooking because the tools hurt too much to use."
• "I found OXO because another person with arthritis recommended it. Nobody in the kitchen aisle told me it existed."

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All observations occur within the context of consumer product design in the United States, where a kitchen tool line co-designed by a woman with arthritis became a mainstream commercial success and the most-cited example of universal design in industrial design education -- and where the disabled co-designer's contribution was systematically attributed to her non-disabled husband until disability advocates corrected the record.

Footnotes

1. OXO: Behind the Design -- OXO's Iconic Good Grips Handles ↩ ↩²

2. Slate: How OXO Conquered the American Kitchen ↩ ↩²

3. Matt May: Betsey Farber's Role in OXO's Design ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

4. Metropolis: OXO Good Grips Peeler, 1990 ↩ ↩²

5. Smart Design: OXO Good Grips Kitchen Tools Innovation ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

6. Dan Formosa in Objectified (directed by Gary Hustwit, 2009; quotes documented by LukeW) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

7. Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum: Good Grips Prototype For A Peeler ↩ ↩² ↩³

8. Helen of Troy Limited: Completes OXO International Acquisition (June 2004) ↩

9. V&A: Design and Disability Exhibition (June 2025 -- February 2026) ↩ ↩²

10. Assistive Technology for Rheumatoid Arthritis (Cochrane Review, 2009) ↩

11. Effectiveness of Adaptive Silverware on Active Range of Motion of the Hand (PeerJ, 2016) ↩

12. OXO Good Grips: Inclusive Design Case Study (Design and Inquiry) ↩

13. Liz Jackson: Empathy Reifies Disability Stigmas (Interaction 19 keynote transcript, Open Transcripts) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

14. Bess Williamson: Accessible America: A History of Disability and Design (NYU Press, 2019) ↩ ↩²

15. Liz Jackson: We Are the Original Lifehackers (New York Times, May 30, 2018) ↩ ↩²