Guided by its imaginative and prescient of “AI for All,” Samsung Electronics continues to develop dwelling home equipment which can be intuitive and handy for a variety of dwelling environments. Among essentially the most impactful developments are accessibility options designed to make these home equipment simpler to make use of for people with disabilities and older adults — reflecting the corporate’s dedication to inclusive design.
Samsung Newsroom sat down with Bona Lee, Vice President and Head of Customer eXperience (CX) Insight Group at Digital Appliances (DA) Business, Samsung Electronics, to debate the newest accessibility options in Samsung’s dwelling home equipment and the philosophy that shapes them.
▲ Bona Lee from Samsung Electronics demonstrates the damaging shade mode on the Family Hub fridge’s show.
Q. What core worth or precept guides your strategy when designing accessibility options for dwelling home equipment?
Using dwelling home equipment sometimes includes a mixture of sensory enter — resembling sight, sound and contact — together with cognitive features like making choices and adjusting settings, in addition to bodily actions like pulling, pushing or lifting. These steps can current challenges for some customers.
Samsung is working to scale back or eradicate these usability obstacles to make sure that everybody can entry all options and profit from the newest applied sciences. As a part of our broader dedication to inclusive design, we provide tailor-made options for various accessibility wants — resembling tactile stickers for buttons, audio cues for customers with visible impairments and management panels positioned at heights accessible to wheelchair customers.
Q. What are some standout accessibility options or providers that customers won’t concentrate on?
▲ Visibility enhancement settings on the Bespoke AI Laundry Combo
The Bespoke AI Laundry Combo provides a considerably extra streamlined management expertise than earlier than. While earlier fashions required customers to show a dial and pressure to learn small textual content to pick out a cycle, the brand new mannequin contains a built-in digital display with massive, easy-to-read fonts. AI additional enhances usability by prioritizing steadily used cycles on the prime of the menu.
What’s extra, SmartThings routines empower people with restricted mobility by automating machine management. A easy voice command like “I’m going to sleep” can flip off lights and home equipment, making a extra comfy and accessible dwelling surroundings.
Q. What new accessibility options have been launched within the 2025 Bespoke AI equipment lineup?
In the 2025 lineup of Bespoke AI home equipment, Bixby can now acknowledge particular person voices utilizing Voice ID expertise and supply accessibility settings tailor-made to every individual. In addition, with built-in microphones and audio system, customers can ask Bixby concerning the equipment’s standing and obtain key alerts through voice responses.
Moreover, the Auto Open Door characteristic — extremely praised by customers with restricted mobility — has been expanded to extra merchandise, together with fridges, washing machines, ovens and dishwashers. A light-weight faucet or easy voice command like “Open the [device] door” offers straightforward, hands-free entry.
▲ The Auto Open Door characteristic on the Family Hub fridge
Q. Are there any ongoing collaborations targeted on enhancing accessibility in dwelling home equipment?
Samsung is actively collaborating with numerous organizations to determine and tackle real-world accessibility challenges. We obtain goal evaluations and professional steerage from numerous skilled organizations together with the Korea Center for Accessibility Assessment & Research. Additionally, accessibility options for our screen-equipped home equipment — resembling voice steerage and improved visibility — are being developed in alignment with the European Accessibility Act that goes into impact this June.
Internal collaboration is simply as very important. The Samsung…
