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To understand how accessible today’s home appliances really are, we spoke with Sam and Nemoy, two blind men about the products they use every day at home. Their stories show that while smart appliances promise convenience, they don’t always deliver it for everyone.
Touchscreens without tactile alternatives, confusing interfaces, and visual-only alerts can turn simple household tasks into frustrating puzzles.
And sometimes, the smarter the appliance becomes, the harder it is to use.
When smarter isn’t better
Sam has seen this happen with coffee machines. In his experience, the more advanced the machine becomes, the less accessible it tends to be. Simpler pod machines can work well because they rely on physical buttons, but many newer models depend heavily on touchscreens or companion apps.
The challenge is figuring out which products will actually work before bringing them home. Unless someone can test an appliance in person, it is often impossible to know whether it will be accessible.
Retail stores do not always make that easier. Sam’s brother works in a major electronics store and has noticed that staff receive little training about accessibility or how blind and low vision customers might interact with appliances.
When technology creates new barriers
Sometimes the accessibility problems only show up once the appliance is already sitting in your kitchen.
Sam remembers bringing home an air fryer that relied heavily on a companion app. Without tactile buttons or clear physical controls on the unit, he couldn’t even turn it on independently at first.
Eventually he discovered, totally by chance, that it could be controlled through a voice assistant. That helped for a while, but it created another problem. If the internet connection dropped out, or the voice assistant stopped working, the appliance stopped working too.
When appliances speak in a language you can’t
Nemoy has run into similar issues when appliances try to communicate problems through visual signals. When his garage door stopped working, the only clue it gave was a series of beeps. His response when he called the company’s help line? “I don’t speak robot.”
Many modern appliances rely on flashing lights, tiny displays, or coded sounds to explain what is going wrong. For someone who cannot see those signals, figuring out the problem can mean guessing, searching online, or asking someone else to check the appliance.
Even when things are mostly accessible, there can still be barriers. Nemoy uses a robot vacuum that responds to voice commands, which allows him to start it easily. But the digital map the vacuum creates of his home is not fully accessible, which means some of its features remain out of reach. “It works after fashioning it,” he explained, “but there are still parts of the appliance I can’t use”.
Price doesn’t always equal accessibility
One surprising thing both men have noticed is that accessibility is not always linked to price.
Sam recently bought a multi-cooker with a companion app that lets him choose functions like sauté, slow cook, or pressure cook without memorising layers of menus. It cost a few hundred dollars.
Meanwhile, some appliances costing thousands remain difficult or impossible to use.
The difference is not in the product technology itself. It is whether accessibility was considered when the product was designed.
Designed for everyone
For both men, the solution is not complicated. Appliances simply need to be designed with accessibility in mind from the beginning.
“Inaccessible appliances deny blind and low vision people use of everyday essentials,” Sam said.
Technology is moving quickly, but accessibility needs to move with it. When inclusive design is part of the process from the start, appliances become easier and safer for everyone to use.
Accessibility should not be something people have to fight for after a product is released.
It should be there from the start.