A floor care appliance such as a vacuum cleaner is provided having a display panel having at least one indicator light for indicating a status of a feature of the appliance wherein the indicator light is lighted by electro luminescent lighting. The electro luminescent lighting is also used on a control panel for a floor care appliance to backlight one or more switches used to control a feature or mode of the appliance wherein the backlighting indicates a status of the feature or mode associated with a particular switch. The switches and electro luminescent backlighting are embedded between layers of a thin film allowing the display and control panels to be mounted on a curved surface such as the handle of the floor care appliance.