Make it So: A more inclusive Vending Machine

Note to technology incubators, young entrepreneurs, students of human computer interaction: should you be looking for a project to increase #a11y / #accessibility in the world, to help merchants sell more stuff, to widen the horizons of inclusion:

Consider the humble vending machine, purveyor f snacks. Perpetrator of exclusion?

Consider the fact that RantWoman is probably going to rant about how the vending machine is seldom the best bargain for buying snacks. Consider that some of the time part of the point of a commercial transaction for RantWoman is interacting with humans to make the purchase. However, consider that RantWoman does herself make adult decisions to buy things from vending machines often enough to harbor fantasies about how to improve them.

Consider the snack machine in RantWoman's very own building.

Various blind, deaf-blind, deaf, people and people with other disabilities would like to use the vending machine.

What barriers do people see if for instance a wheelchair user wants to pay with a credit card? Should an ultramodern vending machine also allow customers to pay by phone or is pay by phone too much to expect for many vending machine locations?

What barriers do people see if a blind person wants to know what snacks are available, how much they cost and how to select one they like?

What technologies such as Bar code readers, text-to-speech, and lighted large-print displays could be applied to make this vending machine more easily usable by many customers?

Are the technologies cheap and easily available so that they can be deployed easily?

Humbly, RantWoman would be happy to have someone else run with these ideas, so someone GO FOR IT.