About the Feelings Wheel

Credits

This tool is based on Dr. Gloria Willcox's Feeling Wheel (1982), a therapeutic tool designed to help people identify and articulate emotions with greater precision.

Reference: Willcox, G. (1982). The Feeling Wheel: A Tool for Expanding Awareness of Emotions and Increasing Spontaneity and Intimacy. Transactional Analysis Journal, 12(4), 274–276.

Also informed by Plutchik's Wheel of Emotions (1980) and Ekman's basic emotions research.

Accessibility

The Feelings Wheel is designed to be accessible to everyone:

• Keyboard navigation: Use arrow keys to navigate the wheel, Enter/Space to select, Esc to go back.
• Screen readers: All interactions are announced via ARIA live regions.
• Color contrast: All text meets WCAG AA contrast ratios in both light and dark themes.
• Reduced motion: Respects prefers-reduced-motion — animations become instant state changes.
• Zoom: Use built-in zoom controls or browser zoom (Ctrl/Cmd + +) to magnify the wheel.

If you encounter any accessibility barriers, please file an issue.

Privacy

The Feelings Wheel runs entirely in your browser. No data is collected, stored, or transmitted. Your selections are not tracked.