The most accessible brand is Whirrlpool; they worked with the Electrical 
Engineering Department several years ago at Michigan State to build 
accessibility into their appliances.  For example, our front load washer has 
a knob that selects between twelve cycles; it is detented and beeps at the 
Normal position.  They have a Braille manual available so you can learn or 
write a cheat-sheet to show the position and settings of the knob for the 
other cycles.  The other buttons give auditory feedback, e.g. the Spin 
control has five different pitched beeps that correspond to highest, medium, 
and low spin speeds; same with Water Temperature.  On our Whirlpool stove, 
the Bake Broil and Clean buttons all beep, and the temperature comes on at 
the same point each time; and the temperature up/down buttons beep each time 
they are pressed.

But, some blind people don't know how to determine if something could be 
accessible.  It is just like troubleshooting a rig, you have to know 
sometimes if you disconnect the appliance's power, do things consistently 
reset to a certain position.

Some manufacturers think they have done a great job at accessibility when 
they really didn't.  My hot tub has Braille controls--L for light, J for jet 
1 and Jet 2, U for Up Down for Down and P for Programming.   They knew a 
blind Opera singer, apparently.  Even with these controls though, there is 
no feedback when you press a button and no way to tell when you have gotten 
to the correct section you want to access when you program the tub in terms 
of cycle length, number of times the filters run, time of day to run 
filtration, etc.

But, I know what you mean about inaccessibility.  I looked at an LG washer 
before we bought our Whirlpool; it had a knob with a light chopper mechanism 
similar to the modern ham rig tuning control for the cycle selector; there 
was no way to tell when you switched from one position to the other.

Sometimes, as we face these issues currently, we can't select appliances so 
much by features or efficiency, we need to first consider accessibility. 
So, I wholeheartedly support this initiative.  Even though I can't get info 
off the display of the washer (which would be nice to know time remaining, 
etc.), the steps they took to make the unit accessible had to cost all of a 
dollar and just took forethought in planning out the layout.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Alan R. Downing" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, March 13, 2014 5:11 PM
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
>