This year marks the 40th anniversary of accessibility programs at Apple, and the company has acknowledged the milestone in various ways, but no one was expecting something that looked quite like this. The iPhone-maker this week quietly posted a new limited-edition MagSafe accessory, designed to support disabled users with their most important piece of assistive tech: iPhone.
With dexterity, mobility, and grip-related disabilities top of mind from the very start, the Hikawa MagSafe Phone Grip and Stand, designed by Los Angeles–based artist Bailey Hikawa, burst onto the Apple Online Store in the U.S. Thursday in all its wavy, triangular, chartreuse glory.
It may not be immediately apparent from the bold yet funky, cog-meets-pyramid design, but the product is a shining example of Apple’s long-standing strategy of building accessibility not as an afterthought or separate line, but into the core of its hardware, software, and ecosystem, and the massive positive ripple effect it has had in doing so. The collaboration also reflects a growing imperative for good design, and that’s co-designing with disabled users.
Adaptive Hardware Developed Through Direct Input From Disabled Users
Unlike most consumer phone grips on the market, the Hikawa accessory was developed with extensive input from iPhone users with a wide range of disabilities, particularly those affecting grip, strength, fine motor control, and mobility.
Key accessibility-driven design features include:
- A stabilizing hand grip optimized for users who experience fatigue, hypermobility, or joint instability
- A soft-touch silicone surface designed to reduce tension and pressure during prolonged use
- Support for one-handed or no-handed use — critical not just for those with limb differences, but for anyone with full or partial paralysis or has hands occupied by a mobility aid
- A dual-angle stand function for hands-free communication or work — not just for ergonomics, but brilliant for sign language
- MagSafe attachment that snaps on securely but removes easily
For many Disabled professionals, stabilizing grips serve as essential access tools. Personally, as someone who uses my iPhone extensively in daily work while managing chronic illness, joint instability, and pain, tools like this can reduce strain and enable more consistent device use throughout the day.
In that context, Apple’s integration of user feedback is significant. Small ergonomic choices can have outsized impact on accessibility, especially for Disabled people who rely on the iPhone as an assistive device.
The iPhone as Assistive Technology
The release comes in a year when Apple has introduced several new accessibility features, including Magnifier for Mac,
- Braille Access,
- Accessibility Reader,
- expanded Head Tracking, Live Listen, Live Captions, Personal Voice and more.
This is just the tip of the iceberg though. These and the dozens other tools built into iPhone are the reasons why the iPhone is now one of the most widely used assistive technologies globally.
For millions of Disabled users, the device is a communication platform, a safety tool, a navigation aid, a health management system, and an accommodation bundled into a single piece of hardware.
The Hikawa accessory extends that functionality by addressing how users physically interact with the device, something disability advocates have long noted as equal in importance to software features.
Bailey Hikawa Brings Sculptural Design to Accessibility
Bailey Hikawa is known for turning everyday objects, particularly iPhone cases, into sculptural, colorful art pieces. This MagSafe accessory is her first of its kind, blending her artistic aesthetic with accessibility considerations.
The grip’s bold form and colorways, Chartreuse and Crater (a recycled Apple-exclusive), reflect Hikawa’s design philosophy: everyday tools should be expressive, vibrant, and visually interesting. In bringing her work to an accessibility-focused product, the collaboration offers a rare intersection, hardware that is both adaptive and artistic. This is a perfect example of how designing for disability does not have to be clinical or utilitarian, it can be artistic, beautiful and expressive.
Apple’s accessibility work has long been cited as a competitive differentiator, in consumer experience, workforce participation, creative production, and economic mobility for Disabled people. A device that is easier to hold, stabilize, and use hands-free can directly impact someone’s ability to work, communicate, and participate independently.
For those of us with hypermobility, joint instability, tremors, or pain, the Hikawa grip may reduce strain and prevent overextension, if only through modest adjustments that can produce meaningful improvements in our daily functioning.
While the accessory itself is small in scope (it’s still only on the Apple Store in the U.S.), its release is a fantastic example of how Apple continues to expand the definition of accessibility beyond simply digital experiences and hardware.
Accessible design is good design, and it can be beautiful design, too.