Alan, I had much the same experience as you in shopping for 
laundry and kitchen appliances in 2012.  It's very bleak, 
especially when you consider that technology can be such a 
liberating experience when something is accessible, such as 
Kenwood with its VGS1 chip.  When I commented on the petition, I 
sited that as one example of how things can really work well when 
someone incorporates accessibility into their philosophy and 
policies when creating a device or appliance.  Jim WA6EKS  ...' '

----- Original Message -----
From: "Alan R.  Downing" <[log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]
Date sent: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 14:11:13 -0700
Subject: Re: OT regarding making home appliances accessible

2 years or so ago, I was shopping for a new washing machine.  I 
looked =
at the usual places such as Home Depot, Lowes, Fry's Electronics, 
and =
the Maytag store.  I remember going into the Maytag store and 
asking to =
be shown all of the washing machines, that I could operate 
without =
sighted help.  The salesperson called the store manager over, and 
he =
walked over and quietly explained that they didn't have any 
machines =
with click-type knobs, or any thing else that he felt that I 
could =
successfully use on my own.  After examining all of the display 
models I =
concluded that he was absolutely right, there wasn't a single 
washing =
machine in the place that I could independently operate.
What a world, Hi.

Alan/KD7GC

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