Engineering students at Michigan State University have modified a washing machine to make it more accessible to people with visual impairments by building a circuit board that would give speech output each time one of the machine’s buttons was pressed.

The students figured out how to link up a voice prompter to the machine’s existing LED read outs.

The modifications barely change the machine’s appearance. Only a smattering of holes for a speaker, tiny Braille labels and a small volume knob.

In the coming university semester, Professor Erik Goodman, who led the experiment, is putting another team to work on modifying a tumble dryer.

Prof Goodman says that manufacturers should take account of accessibility in their original designs – that way products can be made useable by people with all sorts of disabilities at little or no extra cost.

Video.

From BBC Technology.