23 Mar 2025
Towngas launches Cooking Safety Stickers for visually impaired individuals to enjoy cooking with ease
(23 March 2025) Cooking has never been the exclusive privilege of those with good vision. Visually impaired individuals can equally enjoy the pleasure of flame cooking. Towngas has developed the Cooking Safety Stickers for gas appliances that allow visually impaired persons to identify the centre position of burners and control knobs by touch, enabling them to adjust the flame more accurately and cook with greater confidence. Beyond serving the visually impaired, the stickers feature high-contrast colours, making them suitable for colour-blind individuals and elderly persons with declining vision. An organisation for the blind welcomes more accessible product designs, providing additional options for persons with disabilities.
The Cooking Safety Stickers come in two sets. The first set is for burner positioning, featuring two large triangular symbols that help users locate the centre of the burner. The second set is for flame control, with embossed symbols including “-“, “...” and “.”, representing “off”, “high flame” and “low flame” positions respectively. Besides the tactile elements, the stickers include enlarged text and high-contrast colour combinations – orange on black and orange on white – making them clearly visible to those with limited vision and elderly users.
Mr Ivan Lee Ho-leung, Towngas General Manager – Product Development, said, “During the development phase, we invited experts from the Hong Kong Society For The Blind and a group of elderly individuals to provide feedback. They indicated that not all visually impaired persons understand Braille, so we adopted simple, direct symbols that are easier to interpret.”
Mr Alex Chan Chi-kong, Vice-President of the Hong Kong Blind Union, who tested the stickers, found the product highly practical, “We welcome more accessible facilities and product designs, as they provide additional options for persons with disabilities, and choice is precisely what equality is about.”
Alex noted that the Cooking Safety Stickers help newly blind persons adapt to life with visual impairment. “I have been blind for 20 years and can distinguish flame intensity by the sound of the gas stove. For visually impaired persons, an open flame is actually safer and easier to manage.” However, he pointed out that newly blind persons may not quickly adapt to using hearing instead of sight when cooking. “These seemingly small products serve a significant purpose, helping newly blind persons quickly master the operation of gas appliances and adapt to their new circumstances.”
Towngas’s research and development team is working with the volunteer organisations that participated in the development process to distribute the stickers free of charge to those in need for trial use. The Cooking Safety Stickers will be launched in late March and will be available for purchase at all TGC Towngas Customer Centres for HK$25 each.
Disability-Friendly Services
Providing support for people in need within the community has long been one of the driving forces behind Towngas’s continuous innovation. The new Smart Meters now incorporate IoT technology, eliminating the need for visually impaired persons or elderly customers to read their meters manually. Additionally, the Towngas mobile application integrates with TalkBack or VoiceOver features of smartphones, enabling functions such as meter reading reporting and enquiries.
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Photo 1:
The Cooking Safety Stickers feature enlarged text and high-contrast colours, making them convenient for blind and visually impaired individuals.
Photo 2:
Mr Alex Chan Chi-kong, Vice-President of the Hong Kong Blind Union, finds the Cooking Safety Stickers practical.
Photo 3:
Visually impaired persons can easily identify the centre position of the burner, the on/off switch, and adjust the flame through the stickers.
Photo 4:
The Hong Kong Society For The Blind provided valuable suggestions during Towngas's development phase.
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The Hong Kong and China Gas Company Limited