The old fascia had broken and been torn off. I should have saved the buttons from it, but I didn't know that I'd be repairing it - I figured I would have to replace the unit. Well, money is tight, so I got the model number from the unit and looked up parts online. I couldn't find the exact model number on this site, but the picture of the fascia looked just like the picture in my manual, so I bought it, a handle strip, and a new set of buttons.
I pulled the stainless panel off the front, then removed the screws that were still holding the brackets left from the old fascia. I installed the handle strip and all the buttons in the new fascia, and put it on the dishwasher. There are several tabs that have to line up with slots in the door. I made sure everything lined up, rolled it into position, and snapped in the locking tabs, and put in the screws. I replaced the stainless panel, and tried to fire up the dishwasher. It wasn't working! Some of the six buttons were very stiff, stuck hard in the 'out' position, and they couldn't be pressed in. They looked lined up, so that wasn't the issue.
I took the fascia off again, and inspected the buttons. Each one has tabs on the back to stop its travel when depressed, and they were all different sizes. Each also has a letter on the back, so I thought that maybe the problem was that I had installed them out of sequence - but the control panel is flat; there are no differences in the height of the buttons on it, so I really wasn't convinced that would solve the problem. I put the fascia back on, and the issue was still there. So I removed the thing one more time, and pulled the six buttons out of it. I took them out to my wood shop and sanded the tabs all to the same level as the shortest on in the set, and reinstalled everything.
The buttons now work fine, and the dishwasher fired right up. Now my dishwasher looks just like new again.
Tools used: one torx driver for the screws, and a flat blade screwdriver to help ease out the locking tabs. Oh, and a sanding block to level the tabs on the backs of the buttons.