GE Access Kit brings Braille and tactile labels to appliances
Feel empowered to use your kitchen and laundry room
Credit:
Reviewed / Timothy Renzi
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For the blind and low-vision community, using standard home appliances poses some challenges. Most notably, given the many buttons and knobs that govern how one interacts with a washer, dryer, or range, the prospect of using these household staples independently can quickly become overwhelming if you can’t see precisely what you’re pressing.
However, in February 2024, GE unveiled its Access Kit, a simple collection of more than 400 tactile and Braille stickers to correctly label 80 of the most commonly used settings across thousands of standard appliances including washing machines, dryers, dishwashers, ovens, cooktops, temperature-controlling small appliances, toasters, and more.
This means the approximately 6 million Americans confronting some degree of vision loss can make your most important appliances easier to operate.
With more than 150 unique labels to choose from, these carefully made stickers will work with a wide range of appliances made by GE and its competitors.
By GE's admission, the Access Kit is not designed just to be used with GE appliances. These labels can be used across competing products, too. And, because the labels require no additional manufacturing work on behalf of their maker, support for the product is instantly more universal. There's also nothing else on the market like it. And, it's only $20.
How to use GE Access Kit
While washers and dryers seem like the most apt use case for the GE Access Kit, the labels also support microwaves, toasters, ovens, cooktops, and more.
Of the 400 labels, the set includes 150 unique labels in symbol, Braille, and other formats for users to select from. There are also some high-contrast markers, raised symbols, circular, and line-shaped markers, including duplicates for those who may have multiple of the same appliance in a single home.
To use, clean off the button on the appliance's control panel where the sticker will be placed. Use your fingers to search for the label you’d like to use or have someone assist you—the kit is also printed in English—and adhere the sticker on top of the existing button.
Each label has an angular tactile design to make it easily discernable, but the labels are also transparent, so they don’t disrupt the use of the machine for others. Such a careful design choice was made in collaboration with American Printing House for the Blind (APH), a leader in vision-loss accessibility.
Adaptive living across the appliance industry
There's a huge selection of labels. It includes high-contrast markers, raised buttons, and other markers in addition to Braille.
GE’s Access Kit follows a recent trend toward accessibility in the home appliance sector, as we recently awarded LG’s Universal Up Kit with an AccessABILITY Award for excellence in accessibility at CES 2024.
Like the GE Access Kit, the Up Kit features a suite of modifications made to attach to standard appliances, but these aren't stickers. In addition to options for Braille support, the Up kit also features longer handles for improved agility and high-contrast colors to make certain appliance functions easier to see. The designs, however, are bespoke to LG appliances.
While the blind and low-vision community often relies on smartphone apps with screen reader support to use popular appliances, this push to make the actual physical products more usable is greatly appreciated.
After all, while smartphone apps can be a helpful lifeline for the disability community, updates frequently break accessibility features without warning. By focusing on more low-tech solutions like labels or expanded handles, we can avoid these potential technical shortcomings.
In the world of accessibility, simplicity reigns supreme, and we love the idea of a few carefully designed stickers unlocking critical daily independence for millions of folks in need.
Braille labels are hardly a new idea, as those with visual disabilities can make their own labels or sometimes purchase generic sets for certain appliances, but GE’s Access Kit is perhaps the most comprehensive and streamlined way to get the job done. Ann innovation like this, coming from such a mainstream brand, makes this launch all the more noteworthy.
The GE Access Kit is currently out of stock and is expected to become available in April 2024.
The GE Access Kit features hundreds of labels to help customers with visual impairment use a wide variety of appliances.
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