India, May 21 -- A septuagenarian inadvertently touches a washing machine, activating the child lock on it. The disruption in its function makes her overly anxious, leading to an asthma attack. In another case, a visually impaired man accidentally changes the programme on a touch-screen washing machine. When the machine keeps running beyond the scheduled washing cycle, he has to seek his neighbour's intervention. Yet another blind person is locked out of his house because of the inaccessibility of the Smart Lock app.

These examples were cited in a white paper released on Wednesday, a day ahead of Global Accessibility Awareness Day, to demonstrate the daily challenges faced by the visually challenged in the age of appliances that have inc...