1.23 Amazon to Go Stores

In this episode, Amazon to Go Stores and Wheel Under Stovetop will be examined regarding the accessibility features that may or may not exist. Amazon to Go Stores allows customers to buy products without using any type of checkout through smart technology sensors. Using an Amazon app, all products that are taken from the store will be billed to your account. But can this new Grab and Go process be accessible to all abilities? According to an article by one of my favorite websites assistivetechnologyblog.com it just might be. But I will also give you my own opinion that not in all circumstances. 

 In the second half of the episode, I will discuss how Wheel Under Stovetops provide accessibility for a wheelchair and children. Like Amazon to Go Stores, Wheel Under Stovetops does have its limitations but with a simple mirror, much can be resolved. Get the complete transcript by clicking here!

Resources:
Amazon Just Walk Out" article link.
Sammons Over-Stove Mirror link on AskJan.Org

Stay in contact:
accessibilityishome@gmail.com
Facebook page

Transcript

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Today we will learn about Amazon Go Stores and Wheel Under Stovetop and how both miss the mark in full accessibilities for disabilities. Welcome to AI Home Podcast. The first podcast for real estate resources and independent living strategies for the disability community. Why? Because accessibility is home. Hi, I'm Angela Fox, blogger, author, and your host. Please stay tuned to the very end to learn about my free handouts and more importantly, how answering the call to action I will give you at the end, can, well lower the kitchen sinks, but raise the bars for disability home ownership. Now, let's begin. So a couple weeks ago I ran across several articles about Amazon Go stores, and these articles have been out for a while, like last year, but for whatever reason, they started to pop up. I looked into it because what I have always talked about in many of my episodes is that the heart may be where the home is, but the house is where the community lives. So it's really important when you are looking into disability home ownership, whatever that may look like, that you look at the community.. So when I ran into this concept of Amazon stores, I thought, what is that? Particularly the title by venkat assistivetechnologyblog.com it was September, 2021. The title was"Amazon's just walk out will make shopee easy for people with disabilities". So obviously when I saw that, I was like let me look at that. It was a really good article. However, I do disagree with some things that were stated. It was explained what Amazon Go Stores are, and it's basically these micro stores, which is just a fancy way of saying they're very very small stores. What you do is you have an app, it's hooked up to your Amazon account. It's a barcode, and there are places where you swipe it before you go in, and then when you get into the store, there is no checkouts. There's no self checkouts, there's no checkouts with the human being. What Amazon does is relies on smart technology. They call it something else because it is Amazon, but at the end of the day, it is smart technology and every item in that store is basically I imagine probably hooked up to his sensor. So when you pick up that item if you don't put it back you will be charged for that. They said, but don't worry if you change your mind, you put the item back, it will take it off your account and you don't get billed until you walk out of the store within a few minutes. So if you have put the item back, it should not be there On its face it sounds cool. The article talks about the reason why it is accessible for people with disabilities, which I don't fundamentally disagree, but for those people who have dexterity problems, it could be difficult to use, get our credit card and go through that whole process of checking out. In fact, self-checkout stores, while they legally will have been made to be accessible. In reality, they're really not. As a wheelchair user myself, I can't usually reach everything. The actual visualness is challenging for people who are applying. So self checkout, which is a quicker form than the regular checkout has always been a problem. And so if you eliminate all that, it's supposed to be quicker. So I don't disagree necessarily with that. And they do say that if you are visually impaired and you have issues using barcodes, that in fact what you can't do is you can put your palm on and self-check, basically registered that way as you enter into the stores. I don't know about you, but that sounds a little bit counterintuitive. Because what it does in this article, it doesn't necessarily, one address all accessible needs for people who are in wheelchairs, and two, doesn't really address what happens if we have multiple type of disability. So when I saw the palm idea let's ignore the privacy issues with, having a palm registered with Amazon, which might give some of us a pause. But what happens if you are applying, you have issues, dexterity problems yourself. So not only can you use the barcode, but putting your palm will be problematic. So the article does address the negativity of having multiple disabilities. Furthermore, for me as a wheelchair user, the whole checkout really was not an obstacle. Why? Because I went to the regular checkout store where there was a human being and they helped and they're the ones that backed it up and I could handle my cash or my credit card. For me, doing checkouts was not the hardest part of shopping for groceries. What was harder was actually shopping for groceries, meaning be able to actually reach everything. It is so challenging that when I originally started this podcast I actually wanted to have a segment called On the Top Shelf, and it was inspired by grocery shopping because it felt like to me, every time I went to a grocery store, 80% of everything I needed was what on the top shelf. In my earlier episodes, if you had the wonderful privilege of listening, I had segment where I wanted to give reviews on products that you might use in your house to make things a little bit more accessible outside the actual modifications of the home, and even devices that will help you go out and about in a more accessible way. And so I wanted to do those reviews and I called the segment on the top shelf. It became not very manageable. I am going to pivot is to ironically go on Amazon and do live one to two minute videos on things that I feel would be something that you all, if you're under disability community, might be interested to make your house more accessible, that you can, products you can actually buy. This Amazon Go Stores whole focus is to get rid of people, which as a wheelchair user, I need that. I wish they would've invested into more accessible carts because as I go shopping, I can't use the wheelchairs that they do have cause I have bought my own. I'm not gonna leave my own wheelchair in the corner. I don't want anybody stealing it, messing with it just to transfer it into one of those scooters that have a basket that's attached in front of it. So I'm not gonna do that and no one can use the big carts. Instead, I have to just use those individual baskets are really only meant to put, maybe 10 items. I feel like I'm always doing jinga cause I'm piling more items than what those baskets are needed. And it piles up and I pray that, one small move, it doesn't come crumbling down, which is why I don't wanna knock on Amazon because Amazon has very helpful for the disability community in regards to, it's fabulous. You could get everything delivered to your home. Amazon was great before the pandemic, but I think we all learned if you lived in the pandemic, how wonderful it was to have things delivered. And Amazon then during the pandemic because they were like, had that infrastructure deliveries, have things that are really easy to be able to return super easy without any fuss. You could keep a lot of items for 30 days. So it's. That one week window traditionally that other stores had. And so they had the wonderful infrastructure set up. The disability community already, I think really acknowledged that and used them and the pandemic happened and they expanded into groceries like Whole Foods and things, all that nature. But I think we need to be mindful that while some things may be accessible for certain types of disabilities, it won't be for other types of disabilities. I did go on Amazon and the website that does say, yes, there will be human beings. We're just redirecting them into other, like stocking things on the shelf that I can't reach. The irony behind that, and I hope that, so I have not been to an Amazon Go store quite yet. But my experience has always been when you take away something that maybe it won't work out, and I hope it does. I hope those individuals are knowledgeable on assisting people with disabilities, whether it is the barcode to get into the place or reaching items. But it sounds to me the purpose of Amazon Go is to provide individuals a quicker and easier way to literally grab and go, right and also to not invest a whole lot in it, which, being a grocery checkout, that is an investment in employment. So I'm a little skeptical that there will be sufficient people staffed at these Amazon go to help those individuals with disabilities. Where what is set up is not accessible. So we will wait and see. Now, I did tell you that we were going to talk about Wheel under Stove tops and how they might be related to Amazon Go. For those who are not familiar with Wheel Under Stove tops, I think it's pretty self-explanatory, but it's really important that we do go into it because most of us who are disabled become disabled much later in life. I wasn't, I was born with a been disabled parature for forty years, so that's how I know these things. But for those of you who are new or my real estate ages and the housing developers, please pay attention as well. Wheel Under Stove Tops are just stove tops. They're not attached to an oven in a traditional way. It's just a separate stove top and what happens is that there's nothing underneath it. You can literally, as a wheelchair user wheel under because the stove is missing. Now don't you worry, you may be thinking, why would I do that? I need to use the stove. I talk about this in my book I recommend wall ovens because then you can adjust them at any height you need. Then you have the actual oven there. It's just separate from the stove top. So why am I talking about this in relations to Amazon Go stores?,Wheel Under Stove Top they're not always fully accessible. What you will see in a lot of ways is, one a lot of stove tops are the same height as countertops, which means that it might be too high for some wheelchair users. You can lower them down. But usually you can only lower them down by, four to six inches simply because of traditional heights of wheelchairs. Then sitting on the wheelchair you also want have additional space for safety wise. Based on all those factors you can only lower between four to six inches. The six inches is more for manual wheelchair users, the four inches, or for electric, because electric wheelchairs usually are much higher than manual wheelchairs. You're thinking you can wheel onto it, Angie. You can lower it down probably. You can reach everything. Let's carry it through, right? Just like Amazon go focus on only a few aspects. Same thing with a wheel under the stove top and that is what happens when you put pots and pan on the stove top? Because pans there two to four inches high and then pots, you can have anywhere from a small pot that are just five six inches to eight inches. What ends up happening is that yes, you can wheel under, you can put these pots of pans on the stove top without any particular problem. You might even able to easily put a spoon in it and stir, but you're not able to look down, at least not in a good, 360 degree kind of way. If someone able to stand, you can look directly down into the pots of pans. So what I did for decades, it feels I would, basically scoop up some food in a spoon to see what it looks like. Or if I was very adventurous, which I don't recommend I would pull down the pan, look it over. As you can see, that's not super safe, right? So again, I don't recommend it is a strategy. What is the solution? I ran across this wonderful YouTube video from another wheelchair user. I have it on my website at horizontal houses.com. What she discovered was there was a mirror, an actual mirror that was for over the stovetop mirror. Wow., What a wonderful idea, see inside of the pots pans. It's also very universal design concept. Why? Because children, will be able to see what's in inside the pots and pans. The mirror that is recommended because it's fogproof and it's width of your stove top, which I highly recommend. Unfortunately, Sometime early on in the pandemic, they stopped selling it. I can't believe it. So I really don't have too much of a solution other than, you can make your own mirror I don't know anything that has been out there for actual replacement. I really do hope that the company does produce that and if you do have an alternative, please reach out to me. After listening today, disability home ownership is that much closer. Whether you are a wheelchair user or a worker in the housing industry, but there's so much more I can provide you through horizontal houses.com. Horizontal houses.com is the hub for all things related to disability home ownership. You will find my blog, this podcast, my book, and how my consulting service can help real estate agents or housing developers market and tap into the largest minority group, the disability community. All of which come from real world experience as a working class lifetime paraplegic who bought her first home during the great recession and successfully modified it. Please help me continue this exploration of disability home ownership by connecting through my Facebook page, twitter, Instagram, pinster accounts by either searching for horizontal houses on these platforms, or visit directly the horizontal houses.com website. Most importantly though, please subscribe to the email distribution list located on the website so you don't miss out on any updates I may have. Remember, sharing our collective experiences will allow us each to lower the kitchen sink, but raise the bar for disability home ownership. Thank you.