As spring turns to summer and pleasant weather turns to oppressively hot for many (especially in my home state of Florida), thoughts turn toward air conditioning. Especially in the early spring my thermostat gets a lot of use, as many days begin with the need for a bit of heat and end with a sun-warmed house that needs to be air-conditioned. I definitely wanted more control over my climate, but a) my house has two stories with 17 steps, and b) I am lazy. So when it was time to replace an antiquated thermostat a few years ago, I decided not to purchase a Talking Thermostat. Instead I tried the Honeywell Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat with Voice Control, which is now discontinued.
This model seemed to offer the best of both worlds. A talking interface and the ability to set and control the temperature from my iPhone. The unit used network conductivity to accept and process voice commands. The initial wake up command is "Hello," and the unit was about 90 percent accurate in recognizing voice commands. (When I set the voice sensitivity too high, the thermostat would announce itself every time someone spoke anywhere in the upstairs hallway).
Unfortunately, the makers did not have the visually impaired in mind when they designed the thermostat. You could say, "Turn down two degrees" or "Raise temperature to 70 degrees," but you could not ask what the current temperature was. You couldn't toggle between heat and cool, or cycle the fan from auto to continuous using voice commands. With a little effort this thermostat could have been ideal for many people with visual impairments. So close, and yet so far…
Honeywell also offered both Android and iOS apps, but as of six months ago, at least, they both had some accessibility issues. There are completely accessible demos of the apps available, but once the unit was installed and connected, things changed. For example, at the top of each app screen was a summary with the current indoor and outdoor temperature and humidity levels, based on your registered zip code. On the demo, this screen voiced fine. Unfortunately, once the unit was installed and paired with the app, this summary information was invisible to both VoiceOver and TalkBack. To get this information you needed to log on to their mobile site, where the information did announce.
That said, changing the temperature and creating schedules were both easily accomplished using a touchscreen reader. Editing an existing schedule proved problematic, however. The app consistently crashed when I tried to save the changes, using either an iPhone or Android device. If I wanted to change a schedule, I needed to delete it and rebuild it from scratch.
The Honeywell thermostat did offer one feature I found very useful. Most thermostats allow you to toggle the fan on or off when the unit is heating or cooling. Alternatively, you can run the fan continuously. The Honeywell thermostat also offered an "occasional" setting, which would turn the fan on for a few minutes at random times. At over $200, this thermostat was fairly expensive. I might still be using it were it not for the lightning storm that took out my unit's transformer along with the thermostat.
I enjoyed having environmental control at my fingertips, though, so I went looking for a new connected thermostat. I was delighted when I discovered the Emerson SensiTM Wi-Fi Programmable Thermostat on sale for $99 with a regular price of $129 at Home Depot. (Full disclosure: I own shares in Emerson Electric.)
I hired a professional to install the unit. I do believe, however, that a fairly handy consumer could install this unit herself with sighted help (wires need to be matched by color). The help screens and videos are quite useful, and there is an 800-number where we received the help we needed after an iffy ground wire in my wall altered the thermostat's mode. I had already created a Sensi iPhone app account, and after the unit was installed I could accessibly enter the unit's serial number and make a Wi-Fi connection. I did need sighted help to complete the process, as near the end a tiny icon appears on the thermostat display and you have to match it to the one in the app. This is done for security reasons. Even with the logon and password, you must physically be at the thermostat the very first time you use the app, after which logon is automatic.
On this unit, the summary screen offering in- and outdoor temperature and humidity levels voiced perfectly. Once connected, there are several easy-to-use controls. Temperature up, temperature down, heat/cool, and fan on/auto. And since it's Wi-Fi connected, I can change the temperature from anywhere in the world. Recently, as my wife and I drove home from a weekend trip, I called up the app and turned the air conditioning up so it was cool at the house just in time for our arrival home.
Now for the bad news. Using the iOS or Android apps, creating and editing schedules is not possible. There are on/off toggles that do not change status, and the controls to begin the schedule creation do not respond to touch commands. There is a Web interface, but I could not get it to work with any touch or desktop screen reader.
You can have someone create a schedule and then modify it as needed. I have a friend who used a connected thermostat without a mobile device, and the Web interface was inaccessible with her screen reader. She had to call a relative a thousand miles away whenever she wanted to change her home's temperature. This is utterly unacceptable.
That said, if you do get a schedule set you can alter it temporarily using the app. Changes remain in effect until the next scheduled event. If, say, you raise the temperature to 72 degrees at 1 pm and your next scheduled change is at 5 pm, the setting will remain in effect until then. Changes last at least two hours, so if you make that same change at 4:30 it will remain changed until 6:30.
Sensi is not Home Kit accessible, but they recently released an Amazon Echo skill that is accessible by default. After installing the Sensi skill in your iOS or Android Alexa app, issue a command such as: "Alexa, raise Heat Pump by 2 degrees," or "Alexa, lower Icebox by 4 degrees" and Sensi will obey, assuming, of course, you have named your Sensi either Heat Pump or Icebox during the initial setup.
Tech Non-Support
Sensi support is mainly email-based, with follow-up calls when needed. I did receive a call after inquiring about VoiceOver and TalkBack accessibility, but the woman who returned the call had no idea of what either of these were, and when I asked to speak with someone who did know she said there was no one who would, since the app was not made to work with VoiceOver or TalkBack, it was made to work on mobile phones. After going back and forth with several technicians, I was directed to the Web interface, which was also not accessible. When I asked to whom I could speak about adding accessibility I received this response:
Accessibility is important to us, and I'll forward your feedback to our product developers for a potential future enhancement.
Sound familiar?
I do enjoy having app control over my thermostat, but it frustrates me, as I'm sure it does you as well, to realize just how little effort it would likely take to make these and other device-control apps and Web interfaces touchscreen and screen reader accessible. Too often the issue is simple ignorance on behalf of developers. I do not believe Apple, Google, and Microsoft will ever require store apps to include accessibility. I doubt seriously they will even include a useable accessibility rating. But perhaps a simple checkbox on the app submission form: "Have you considered accessibility?" is in order. True, many developers will simply check this box without having considered accessibility, but I suspect many others might ask, "Just what is this accessibility of which you speak?"
That would be a start, at least. If you have any thoughts on the subject, we'd love to hear them.
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