Hasta La Ideas

GE Appliances sells this Access Kit, which contains over 450 transparent stickers featuring Braille and raised symbols. The idea is to make it easier to retrofit existing appliances for households with blind or low-vision members.

“Designed to represent the 80 most common settings across thousands of appliances, the durable stickers are placed directly over existing controls, allowing appliance buttons, knobs and other functions to be identifiable by touch. They are created to be easy to feel and differentiate with a thin and angular tactile design. They are also transparent so the original text can still be viewed.”

GE uncovered the need for the kit while conducting customer research, which shows the importance of studying what end users actually need: “Our research showed that a lot of blind and low-vision consumers are devising their own complex systems just to navigate the settings on their appliances, making simple household tasks incredibly difficult,” said GE industrial designer Chris Bissig, who leads a team of both industrial and user interface designers in the Concept & Brand studio.

GE produced the kit in partnership with the American Printing House for the Blind (APH). They retail for $20.