When will Target Stores, which prides itself as a trend-setter for youth embrace the timeless trend of aging?

Michael Graves gets "design."  But the superstar designer also gets aging and living with the challenges of physical disability.  For years he has put his stamp on new wave tea kettles more than 1,000 other items for Target.  Now he’s putting his touch on design for products for seniors and other people living with disabilities through a company called Drive Medical.

Graves, 75, is paralyzed below the waist.  A meningitis bout took away his use of his legs in 2003.  According to a recent AP story, the famed architect says he became "an instant expert" on difficulties facing people with disabilities.

But Graves said his disability was not the reason Drive Medical approached him about designing a new logo, which led to the company asking Graves to design a line of new products in 2004.

"I’m not even sure they knew I was in a wheelchair at the time," Graves recalled.

The line began small in 2006, with a Graves-designed heating pad, and recently expanded to include bath benches and bathtub rails.

Two of those Drive Medical devices are on display at a Minneapolis Institute of Arts exhibit celebrating Graves’ 40-plus years as a designer, architect and artist. The exhibition, which opened in late August, is housed in the three-story, $50 million Graves-designed Target Wing addition that opened at the MIA in 2006. Called "From Towers to Teakettles: Michael Graves Architecture and Design," the exhibit runs through Jan. 3, 2010.

One of the Drive Medical devices on display is an adjustable bathtub rail that clamps to the edge of the tub. In contrast to the stainless steel grab rails usually seen in institutional settings, Graves’ offering is a soft blue oval ring set onto a metal frame clad in white plastic with a bright orange knob for adjustments.

A sleek silver Graves-designed collapsible cane that folds into a black bag also is on display.

Drive Medical spokesman Edward Link said the Port Washington, N.Y.-based company was looking for an acclaimed designer who could remove the "medicinal look" of health-care products.

Graves has designed about a dozen products for Drive Medical in three areas: bathroom safety, including the bath rail and bath and shower seats, which are now available online and in medical specialty stores; mobility, such as the cane; and aids for daily living, such as reachers. The Graves-designed canes and reachers will be rolled out over the next three to six months.

Graves said his Princeton, N.J.-based design group, which has designed more than 1,800 consumer products, thinks "about the whole community" when it starts any product design.

"We don’t treat them differently in terms of the human being that’s going to hold it, assemble it," Graves said. "Whether you’re a young homeowner or you’re in a nursing home …you can open the jar with our jar opener."

Designs for the disabled need to take into account that not everyone with a disability is the same, Graves said. In his own case, Graves said, he suffered spinal pain after his paralysis, and the first wheelchair and minivan he used did not have the right shock absorbers to cushion against bumps.

"Every day is learning for me because I’m in a wheelchair," Graves said, adding that designing for the disabled is rewarding. "I think for me, it’s kind of payback."

Target is not currently carrying any of Grave’s new products for seniors and others living with disabilities.   What a missed opportunity by a company that prides itself on being ahead of the curve.