Household appliances: accessibility needs improvement!

When buying new household appliances, the decision for an appliance is often influenced by superficial criteria: a coffee machine with a color display and touch control seems much more modern than one with mechanical knobs. The focus on a futuristic-looking design, however, leads manufacturing companies to use hardly any mechanical interaction elements – and cutbacks are made in accessibility in other respects as well. Yet haptic and acoustic feedback would not only be important for people with disabilities; it makes devices easier to use for everyone and contributes to a positive user experience.

Some devices are still equipped with rotary or toggle switches, but they are still usually not accessible because, for example, tactile markings and an associated fixed zero point are missing, or the selection of options is complex and not very intuitive. In the last 10 to 15 years, the operability of household appliances for people with disabilities has become steadily more difficult, and the use of commercially available cooktops is currently hardly possible for blind people.

New products are often developed for cheap mass production

Actually paradoxical, finds Christoph Veigl, who leads projects for the development of assistive technologies at UAS Technikum Wien: “It should be the goal of modern technologies to support as many people as possible through inclusive design. However, short-sighted criteria of cheap mass production contradict both the guidelines of Universal Design and the principles of reparability and sustainability.”

Researchers at the Department of Electronic Engineering at the University of Applied Sciences Technikum Wien have been working on assistive technologies since 2010, currently as part of the projects “Knowledge Hub for Accessible Technologies” and “Inclusion International”, both funded by the City of Vienna (MA23). The knowledge hub sees itself as a mediator between companies, research institutions, care providers and users (“need-knowers”). Small projects are also supported, such as the implementation of barrier-free websites or the development of individual input systems for computer access.

Checklist for assessing the accessibility of household appliances

Experience and know-how from past research projects are made available on the wbt.wien website. A forum section also answers organizational questions, such as “How are people with disabilities financially supported?” or “What is the difference between barrier-free and handicapped accessible?”
With the checklist for evaluating the accessibility of household appliances, the site offers a very special feature designed to motivate people to test their everyday appliances themselves and share reports of their experiences with others.

Is the display easy to read? Is a voice output or even a voice assistant available? Does the device have a rotary dial? Can you haptically feel a fixed zero point? The resulting star ratings can be used as a decision-making aid when making a purchase. “Our goal is for platforms like Geizhals.at to add such ratings, and for manufacturers to provide information on the accessibility of their devices,” says Christoph Veigl.

New developments and workshops

As part of the knowledge hub for accessible technologies, not only are consultations offered on technical issues and assistive technologies, but completely new technical solutions can also be developed. This can be a prototype, but also an already developed, concretely applicable system. In the 3 years of existence of the knowledge hub, several such new developments have already been implemented. The development of the so-called “FlipPad” – a novel touchpad for a young person with muscular atrophy – was awarded the main prize at the international Tom Global Innovation Challenge 2022. Furthermore, 15 workshops were held for aid organizations as well as other UAS sponsors (including FH Campus Vienna, FH Joanneum Graz, FH Kärnten, Ergotherapie Austria).

Cooperation with associations for the blind and manufacturers

Together with the Austrian Association for the Blind (ÖBSV) and representatives of the initiative “Home Designed For All”, those responsible at the FH Technikum discussed the situation of the lack of accessibility. This resulted in a cooperation whose goal is to push the accessibility of home appliances in cooperation with major manufacturing companies. In May 2022, a meeting was organized between the BSH Hausgeräte Group (including Bosch, Siemens, Neff) and associations for the blind from Austria, Germany and Switzerland at UAS Technikum Wien, where concrete improvements to the accessibility of the Home Connect app for home appliances were planned and agreed upon, which have already been implemented in the current version of the app and will now benefit all users*.

The “Universal Access Panel” – a prototype for controlling household appliances

The cooperation with ÖBSV, which started in 2020, also resulted in a prototype of an accessible control panel for smart homes and household appliances, the Universal Access Panel. First, the design criteria were defined in several meetings with experts from ÖBSV. Subsequently, it was defined how the project could be technically implemented. The result is a multimodal operating concept with haptic, visual and acoustic interaction elements. This makes it possible to use a wide variety of devices with a compact, barrier-free remote control. These results were presented at the ICCHP conference in Lecco in July 2022 and published as an open access paper.

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Image above: Universal Access Panel – an interaction concept for barrier-free smart home control.