Curious but practical: Talking deep fryer for accessibility
Accessibility is regulated by law for buildings and streets. In everyday household life, however, this does not help. Most people don’t know about barrier-free household appliances, but they do exist. Even in Innsbruck!
INNSBRUCK. In a world of touchscreens, orientation is becoming increasingly difficult for blind and partially sighted people. Therefore, household appliances that they can operate independently are a real revolution.
Household appliances are improved
“Today, finding a cooker that still has knobs is an impossibility,” says Sabine Karrer, executive chairwoman of the Tyrol Association of the Blind and Visually Impaired (BSVT), describing everyday life for people who depend on haptic elements. Neither the treating physicians nor the people affected or shop assistants know that there is actually an alternative – at least in the case of household appliances – for visually impaired people. The Videbis company, which manufactures just such household appliances, has settled in the BSVT at Innsbruck’s Amraserstrasse 87. This year she celebrated her 5th anniversary. In order to create more awareness of the topic, she presented her offer on Amraserstraße. From the deep fryer to the coffee machine to the microwave and the washing machine. The devices themselves come from different manufacturers and are converted to be barrier-free by Videbis. The big challenge here: the guarantee. As soon as something is changed on the device, the guarantee no longer applies. That’s why Videbis makes sure that both externally attached, tactile buttons and a speaking system do not have to be inserted into the housing.
329,000 people in Austria affected
A total of 329,000 people in Austria are affected by a visual impairment. The experts at the BSVT in Tyrol do not know the exact figures for the federal state. It manages a large number of unreported cases, because many people gradually become visually impaired or do not report to the association. They believe that with household appliances like this, it would be possible to enable people who “only” have limited vision to lead a self-determined everyday life – and thus also relieve old people’s homes.