[gui-talk] universal design of appliances

[Mike Arrigo]

A dial can be marked which helps somewhat, and sometimes if one button is pushed in, it pops another one out, but if it's just push buttons that beep, that's a problem. I was thinking of how window air conditioners could work, as you press the temperature up and down buttons, it would announce the temperature setting, for the fan speed, this could be announced as auto, high speed, low speed, etc. One thing that is helping somewhat with this is that many appliances can now be controlled with apps on a smart phone. While this is a convenience feature for many people, for us it may allow us to use appliances that we otherwise could not use. This assumes that the app is accessible of course.
> On Dec 30, 2016, at 1:53 PM, Doug Lee via gui-talk <gui-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Never thought about that for humidifiers, but oh my goodness the number of times I'd have liked such a thing
> to be applied to washing machines! I live in a large condominium complex where all the washers, shared among
> residents, are operated by a dial that spins with no end in both directions, buttons that cycle through
> displayed options, and the only "accessibility" feature I can find being the enabling of a beep on each button
> press. Were I a betting man, I'd lay odds against my own precision when operating these things now and then.
> 
> On Fri, Dec 30, 2016 at 02:41:11PM -0500, Mike Arrigo via gui-talk wrote:
> I was setting up one of my humidifiers last night, and it occured to me that
> adding universal design to appliances such as humidifiers, window air
> conditioners and other similar devices probably could be done quite easily if
> manufacturers were willing to do it. I'm not sure if manufacturers have just
> never thought about this or if they just don't think it's worth the effort.
> For example, to add voice output to the humidifier I mentioned, you would not
> even need to add a full text to speech engine, just add recorded phrases, and
> play them as appropriate. In this case, phrases such as warm mist setting,
> cool mist setting, humidity set at 45 percent, mist set at medium, etc. With
> the microcontrolers that are available, I would think this would be fairly
> easy to add, wondder if it will ever happen.
> 
> _______________________________________________
> gui-talk mailing list
> gui-talk at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/gui-talk_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for gui-talk:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/gui-talk_nfbnet.org/dgl%40dlee.org
> 
> -- 
> Doug Lee                 dgl at dlee.org                http://www.dlee.org
> SSB BART Group           doug.lee at ssbbartgroup.com   http://www.ssbbartgroup.com
> "When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you."
> --African Proverb
> 
> _______________________________________________
> gui-talk mailing list
> gui-talk at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/gui-talk_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for gui-talk:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/gui-talk_nfbnet.org/n0oxy%40charter.net