MAJOR RESTAURANTS NOW HAVE BRAILLE MENUS FOR THE BLIND, BUT THERE IS STILL A VOID

From the nationwide café giant Starbucks to the popular local restaurant group Legal Sea Foods, blind and visually impaired diners are being served with braille menus printed by the National Braille Press (NBP.) The NBP congratulates those businesses that are making a big difference in the dining experience for the blind and visually impaired by providing braille menus, creating access to important food information that the sighted community already has. The NBP encourages other restaurants to consider offering braille menus to provide accessibility and for the blind community.

“Restaurants understand that by providing braille menus for their blind customers, it is not only a good thing to do from an accessibility perspective, it also makes good business sense,” said Brian MacDonald, President of the National Braille Press. “We are fortunate to have two major restaurants in the industry, Starbucks and Legal Sea Foods, that understand the importance of having braille menus for their customers. We hope that others will follow their lead so that blind people have even more choices of places to dine.”

Amber Pearcy, proofreader at the National Braille Press, recently had lunch at Legal Harborside and ordered off the newly revised and updated braille menus along with her colleagues, also braille readers, Joe Quintanilla, Vice President of Development and Chris Devin, proofreader. Legal Sea Foods has offered braille menus for about twenty years.

“I love going into a place where I can read a braille menu. It puts me on an equal playing field with the rest of the people in my group. It’s a nice feeling of being included,” said Pearcy, who is blind and a braille reader.

“One of the things that always bothered me at a restaurant that doesn’t have a braille menu is that they ask me what are you interested in and I don’t really know what I am interested in until I know what’s there,” said Quintanilla. “Having a braille menu allows me to have a great dining experience and lets me try things that I may never thought of or knew were available to me.”

Chris Devin frequently dines out with his wife who is also blind and a braille reader. “My wife and I are both blind. When we go to a restaurant we have to have somebody read to us to learn about the menu. We like to patronize a place that has braille menus. Even at the restaurant where we go frequently we ask for the braille menu because we want them to know that they are being used and that they are important.”

Over the past few years National Braille Press has produced menus for national restaurant chains such as Starbucks and Wendy’s as well as popular local restaurant groups such as Massachusetts Legal Sea Foods, Life Alive, Redbones and The Oak Room at Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel. The process of printing a braille menu takes roughly four to six weeks.

“There is more awareness now of providing equal access to information for the blind and visually impaired community, and restaurants are slowly coming on board,” said Nicole Noble, Director of Sales for the NBP. “We consider the restaurants our partners in promoting braille literacy and we look forward to having more braille menus available for the blind and visually impaired community.

About National Braille Press

A non-profit braille publisher, National Braille Press promotes literacy for blind children through outreach programs and provides access to information by producing information in braille for blind children and adults. For more information visit www.nbp.org

(Chris Devin, Joe Quintanilla, Amber Pearcy at Legal Harborside in Boston reading braille menus – photo by National Braille Press)