When we're talking washers and dryers, if you're using the kind with knobs, we have to mark ours with puff paint, putting a dot at the different settings. We actually had the maintence guy come and rip off a covering around the knob, because the plastic spun freely, preventing us from marking settings. Even then, even if you made those appliances with bumps on them already, you would still have to get someone to tell you what the dots meant. Maybe some kind of raised symbol system, a universal design would be good. A symbol for delicates, and so on.

They make talking scales already, which is nice. As for determining colored clothes vs whites, that's an ongoing battle. I haven't yet met a color identifyer that worked well. Some people go the route of sewing braille labels or variously shaped buttons to the inside hem of their clothing, a triangular button meaning one color, a square another. Again, some universal design for a tactile system on clothing tags is one idea, various textures or bumps to signify the colors. But that's getting away from the specific bathroom area.

I'm having a little trouble thinking of bathroom appliances I have an issue with. I know it's always awkward to go into a public bathroom alone, like in an airport. Where are the sinks? Where are the stalls? I'm just going to walk along the front of them and touch doors until I find an open one. What if a stall is out of order? How do we know that unless we happen to feel the sign on the front of the stall?

I can't really think of any other issues at the moment. Maybe others will have ideas!

Hi.
Well, I think people always find their own way of handeling Things at home. I have labeled my washing machine with Braille which Works great for me.
My difficulty is to navigate at the very big toilets in hotels restaurents, airports etc, where you never know where to go to find a toilet, sinc or the other Things you'll need. My difficulty is if those rooms are very big. I'm good at asking for help if there is someone to ask, but if there aren't, then I can wander around for some time until I find what I need. When saying big rooms, I mean rooms so big so a car could easily parc in there. Yeah, I have seen toilets with that much empty Space.
I wish more Braille marks were used here in Denmark. But, I think the difficulty there is, if you don't know exactly where they are, you as a totally blind person wouldn't notice them at all. It would look strange to randomly search for Things at the public, which would make you look like someone WHO might have other issues than your blindness... ;:)

Dark, I am amused that UK "Handicapped stalls" as we call them in the US have keys to get into them. Here, the big stall is just at the far end of the row, and anybody can go in.
Bathroom cultural education, one weird post at a time.

From your description of "cubicals" then I can say that "stalls" here in the US is the same thing. As for your comments abot where this topic is going and about it being

I found that I agree. Let me guess, we might start talking about where clothing comes from. LOL. I can tell you, that is something interesting to learn about. LOL. Any as for me when it comes to bathrooms and the like, I can tell you that the bigger the bathrooms are, the easyer I get lost in them. Other than that, better labeling always helps. If I go and take a shower and I have alot of stuff to chuise from to put in my hair, the more likely I will put the wrong thing in my hair. LOL.

@Cw, yes, this topic is whacky, though i agree finding out the history and provonance of common place things can be an interesting thing.

@Sean, talkingmicrowaves already exist. see This link A blind neighbor of mine left me one in his will. It was odd, before I had it I wouldn't have said one was particularly necessary sinse those standard knob control ones (the ones that have one dial for setting temperature and one undernieth for time), are very accessible (you might not even need labels if you have a good timer), but I've rather liked having it, though admitedly this is mostly because the generator in it is a bit uba so does stuff very quickly! .

If it busts I might actually think about rebuying one, indeed I thought it had broken earlier this year but it turned out it just needed a clean and a reset.

Of course there are those annoying microwaves with those utterly impossible touchpads as you said, but those aren't quite universal yet, same goes for ovens, mine has braille labels that we stuck on anyway, though many other appliances like the good old george are just push buttons.

I can't speak for dishwashers though sinse I've never really seen the point of them unless you've got about five people in your housewho eat regularly, sinse I'm just on my own and only have my own pots to wash I just do them myself.

As to running things through smart phone, well I never really see why you would need! a smart fridge, sinse hay, it's a fridge, you put stuff in, it makes stuff cold! what else do you want?

I suppose smart phone control of something like an oven or microwave would work, but that seems a tad overkill in the software department when the things are easy enough to make accessible, or in the case of microwaves exist in an accessible form anyway. About the best appliance you could control via smartphone would be a washing machine sinse there are so many programs and the knobs are fiddly.

In kitchin design, the best I could think of access wise would be say some none stick counter tops to make pouring easier and not make spilling stuff so dire, plus an oven with those contact hobs that only keep hot when you put stuff on them, not to touch, ---- although again, kevla oven gloves are wonderful things! .

@Rok, braille numbers on classrooms would be awsome, I wish my university had similar sinse it's always a pest to be told to go to room 41 and know where the corridor is but not which of the rooms from 40-48 41 happens to be. Ironically the only braille labels in the university happen to be on the book shelves in the library, ---- that is right, the only braille labels are on the shelves of print! books! Craaaazy!

Talking microwaves do work well, actually today at a Vi exhibition I picked up the  cobalt catalogue and see they do a talking combination microwave, oven and grill which I will have a look at, sinse that definitely has possibilities.

As for your friend's project, I'd suggest for a bathroom thing and something easy to produce braille labled tubs to hold shampoo, bath oil  and shower geell. labelling the bottles isn't always practical, the bottles come in many different shapes and sizes and so pouring into a pre labled container would certainly help, especially if the lables were engraved or etched rather than just being stick on plastic braille ones that might end up falling off given that bathrooms are, ---- well you know, usually wet .

Interesting thought tom, though I actually don't have a shower myself just a bath (I've tried to persuade the counsil to let me put one in but they  reffuse due to lack of tyles in my bathroom), so I'd personally suggest something more universal than a shower caddy when it comes to containers.

Also, I've never had trouble with shaving foam or cream, sinse I don't know how it is in the states but over here they always come in a metal spray can, which I keep on the bason by my razor rather than on the shelf with all the shampoo, bath stuff  etc,indeed even if I owned a shower I'd probably not want my shaving cream in the shower caddy sinse I obviously  wouldn't be getting into the shower to shave, ---- and besides wouldn't having a shaving cream slot be a little male specific?

It also occurs to me that If it was a set of individual containers with labels for different things, people could choose which ones they wanted, eg, I wouldn't be using a shower  gell container because I  don't own a shower, and women wouldn't  obviously want the one for shaving cream.

Not sure what you mean about the A.F.B. or N.F.B. or how they treat people Ethin, but I agree on touchpads, they're a pain in the rear, albeit are a trend in design I've seen in various appliances and electronic devices from the mid nineties onwards, making buttons smaller and less distinct (often just rows), doing away with sliders and knobs and other sorts of none immediate push controls. Of course the touchpad or touchscreen is the ultimate end of that progression, which is a right nightmare access wise on anything that can't have a screen reader installed on it.

Then again all these things are fashions, so we'll just have to see where things go.

As to the talking microwave, the odd thing is 5 years ago I'd have entirely agreed with you. The ones with the standard two dial setup where you have a temperature gage at the top and a timer to set undernieth are no problem use, and very easy to lable with braille or bumpons. touchpad ones can be more of a pain, especially if they're programmable, but here at least there is choice.

However, I was left a talking microwave by a blind neighbor who died and I can say there are some definite advantages. Firstly, the cobalt talking microwaves are all 900 wot, meaning they're uba powerful, wich is cool. Second, there are factors of precision you just don't get with labels. For example,I have learnt through trial and experience that if I want hot chocolate, a mug full of milk needs microwaving for exactly two minutes and ten seconds. Anymore and it starts to skim over, any less it's not hot enough after I whisk it. Of course, it is quite possible I could do something similar in terms of timing precision with an efficient timer that I start up, and a none talking microwave, or possibly with some correct braille lables although I've not personally seen one which my mum and I were able to lable accurately to within less than 30 second intervals.

There is then the facilities other than just using the microwave in it's standard form, such as using the defrost function, or come to that the time clock.

Could I live without one? Hell yes! Does it however make life easier and give me the same access to the functions of a microwave that sighted people get? also yes. Is it worth the 240 quid (about 300 usd), which a new one would cost? that I really don't know.

Btw, amusingly enough when I was at the local society for the blind exhibition chatting to humanware about aftershock headphones the other day as I said in the other thread, my dad happened to see a talking microwave in sale for just £50. We've now bought this and my parents have swapped it for their very horrible touch pad activated one, sinse when you consider that a new standard microwave could fetch you back 50 quid, the same price for a talking one isn't bad at all (especially one with a 900 wot capacity which is better than what my parents had previously).

@Dark, actually having a shaving cream or shaving lotion slot would not be male specific. You are forgetting that many women shave their legs, armpits, etc so have their own razors and shaving creams too. So women do shave but shave other parts of their bodies than us men.

As far as a shower caddy goes I don't see why it wouldn't work for a bath as well as a shower. As I said in my prior post you can stick it to the wall with suction cups so regardless if you were taking a bath or a shower it would be hanging their on the wall of your bathtub with all of your soaps and shampoos organized and available for use regardless of how you were cleaning up.

As far as shaving creams and shaving lotions goes that largely depends on if we are talking men's or women's shaving creams and lotions. Most men's creams come in the spray can as you mentioned. As I recall my ex-wife's shaving lotion came in a plastic bottle and smelled like strawberries or some other fruity sent. In any case it was easy to mistake it for hand soap since it came in that kind of plastic container. So we were careful to put it somewhere where I would not accidentally grab it mistaking it for something else.

In any case your point about women not wanting a specific slot for shaving creams or jells is probably incorrect since you are thinking of shaving specifically as a man thing when it is not. Plus most of the women I know who shave do so while taking a bath since it is easier to shave their legs while sitting down in a bath than standing at the bathroom sink as a lot of men do. So a shower caddy would work equally well for both men and women in my personal opinion.

As for the main stream device in compare to the Vi devices, I tend to agree. I currently have the first model of the stream and my share of IOS devices around me. I personally have found that I tend to lain more toward the main stream stuff when that is good enough. I personally don’t feel the need to upgrade my stream to the newest model. After all, I do get the same if not better voices for the voice dream reader app. I also use the bard app on the IOS device too. On the other hand, I do like being able to put a book or two right over on the SD card without having to use the pig that is known as ITunes. I basically do not like paying no more than really needed to get the job done quite well. This would, for me, apply across my most if not all of my desires when out looking for a device of some kind to get the job done. Now if the stream would drop around 100 to 150 US dollars, then that my convince me to buy it. Add support for me to buy more voices for the device, and the desire for it might just go up a bit. Add dropbox to it and… I am sure you get the picture. I also had a look at the trekker  and find that it really isn’t Werth the price for most things. Does anyone know of a good GPS app for the IPhone to allow you to walk across open areas that is off the map and mark  points that you wish to come back to later? I am thinking about those sidewalks at schools and universities LOL. Now back to this topic. My biggest thing in the bathroom is just plain making sure things are where I think they are over all. One thing that I sometimes don’t find out until I get done in there is that the toilets sometimes  flush themselves without me having to do a thing and others not. I am sure you can see the picture of the blind person reaching for the control to flush and not finding it when all they have to do is to walk away in that public rest room. LOL. Of course, that feature usually gives away the fact that it’s there just by doing its’ thing at odd times. LOL. We are talking about the bathroom right?

Are auto flush toilets so common in the states? In the uk you might see them on planes or at certain hotels as a gimic, but most county councils are not going to shell out the extra cash for them as general public toilets, same with restaurants, cinemas, pubs, theatres and other businesses where you'd find toilets. I honestly can't recall the last time I saw an autoflush.

Maybe they should fit them with voice samples, like perhaps a dalek saying "Evacuating waste! Ee vac u ate! ee vac u ate!" or perhaps the enterprise computer saying "thirty seconds to self deflush" .

@Cw, I  agree with you on the price of the Victor stream, but Itunes just became too much of a pain in the arse to use sinse version 12 killed the lables, plus I do hate the way Itunes ignores all your media folders and structuring entirely. The problem is, the Victor stream is just plane useful in terms of being able to preserve folder structure and speaking the names of what you have in there, not to mention a few little touches such as being able to keep your place in one book while you say listen to music. I did look around at alternatives, but it seemed the Victor really was the only practical one in terms of an actual speaking device that would let me use files and folders efficiently, (I did look at the ones with rockbox but the last thing I wanted to do was swap the complication of Itunes for another set of annoying software).

Is the Victor stream expensive? most certainly, when you consider that a sighted person could potentially pay as little as a tenner for an mp3 player, and even a good, top of the line  one would cost them only about 50 as opposed to the 230 of the Victor, however this is one instance where I've just had to accept the price, and certainly in terms of how much I've used the dam thing sinse I bought it in october and how easy it is to transfer stuff (especially for someone like me who's a fiend about folder structure), I've definitely had my money's worth out of it.

I'd say men are %50 less likely to trigger the sensor, ---- you knowlike one number in two? boom boom!