MUMBAI, 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 increasingly moved to touch-enabled interfaces, leading in many cases to the exclusion of the disabled and the elderly. The white paper, titled Built to Include: Expanding the reach of consumer products through accessibility and released by the Xavier's Resource Centre for the Visually Challenged (XRCVC), outlines practical ways for organisations to improve accessibility to white and brown goods-refrigerators, microwaves, washing machines and televisions-through inclusive product design, accessibility training, and co-creation of products with persons with disabilities. "As the technology of consumer goods evolves, it is critical that accessibility becomes a part of how products are developed so that they do not unintentionally exclude sections of society," said Dr Sam Taraporevala, executive director, XRCVC. With the release of the white paper, he added, they hoped to encourage manufacturers to proactively build accessibility into mainstream products. The centre concludes its paper by saying that accessibility is most effective and economically sustainable when integrated during the early stages of product development....