My Accessible Home

Did you know, disabled people face many barriers when buying and using home appliances? This is why I started the My Accessible Home campaign.

About My Accessible Home

I started My Accessible Home after becoming increasingly frustrated when trying to buy appliances to use at home. I’m totally blind, and although touchscreen devices can be made accessible, many manufacturers neglect to include accessibility features in their products. This means I can’t even buy something as simple as a coffee maker without having to try and find out if I’ll actually be able to use it.

It even impacts where I can live. When I was looking to move house, one consideration I had to make was whether the included appliances such as the washing machine would actually be accessible for me to use. In an already competitive rental market, this limited my choices even further and made it an extremely stressful experience. I also knew that I wasn’t the only disabled person experiencing these barriers. So I wanted to find out the scale of the problem and do something about it.

What I’m Fighting For

Accessible design is good design.

My mission is to get appliance manufacturers to consider that disabled people are consumers too, and we need access to their products. It’s absolutely critical that we can cook, control the heating in our houses, make hot drinks, stay fit, and access at home healthcare without experiencing unnecessary barriers. We shouldn’t have to rely on products designed especially for disabled people, that generally lack features and are prohibitively expensive. Accessible design should be part of all products.

So I’m advocating for practical things. Voice activation, buttons you can feel, products that talk back, designs that work for everyone. Your product isn’t truly smart if it doesn’t work for all of us.

Join Me — Here’s How

Every voice and story counts.

• Fill out the My Accessible Home survey and share your experiences accessing home appliances as a disabled person.
• Keep up with the #MyAccessibleHome hashtag on social media. The campaign will officially launch on Monday the 4th of March 2024. This will allow time to gather survey data.
• Share your story. Are you disabled, or do you live with someone who is and are impacted by inaccessible design? Get in contact with me so I can feature your story on this page and in other campaign materials.

Campaign Goals

I’ve talked a little bit about better design, but here’s where I want this campaign to go.

• Inclusive Design Standards: Organisations like the RNIB have already produced design standards and offer accreditation through their RNIB Tried and Tested scheme. I want to raise awareness of this and other similar schemes, so that companies know there are avenues for ensuring product accessibility.
• Policy and Legislation Changes: There are initiatives that encourage businesses to be sustainable. What about similar initiatives to encourage businesses to prioritise accessible design. We all hope that businesses will realise that they should be doing this anyway, but policy reform can support this mission.
• Awareness and Education: Significantly increase public and corporate awareness about the need for accessible design, and the barriers currently experienced by disabled people.
• Manufacturer commitment: Secure commitments from major home appliance manufacturers to include accessibility as a core aspect of their product design and development process.
• Educational Involvement: Establish collaborations with universities and design schools to incorporate accessible design principles into their curricula.

Keep checking back for updates to this page, and follow me across my social channels for more regular posts, including opportunities to share your experiences.