Every household is being offered the opportunity to have a smart meter so that it becomes easier to monitor energy use in the home. Smart meters usually have a display that clearly shows current usage and automatically sends energy use readings to your supplier. We have been made aware of an accessible smart meter display that the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) has created along with energy suppliers.
The Accessible smart meter that RNIB has created has some additional features, including tactile buttons, good colour contrast, text to speech output and large typeface. Our understanding is that not all energy suppliers can supply the accessible smart meter display. You can visit the smart meter website
https://www.smartenergygb.org/about-smart-meters/the-accessible-inhome-display or contact your energy supplier for some more information.
Please get in touch with a NESS worker if you would like some support to get an accessible smart meter.
We are not yet aware of anyone who has had an accessible smart meter installed – if you have installed one, why not get in touch in all of the usual ways and tell us how you went about it and how you have found using the accessible display? It would be great to let people know how the process worked.
