Perhaps by now you've heard about the South African burger chain, "Wimpy," cleverly promoting their braille menus. It really is pretty neat—they've created braille text on their burger buns using sesame seeds. The braille spells out phrases such as "100% pure beef burger made for you." The sesame seeds were placed on the buns prior to baking using tweezers. These special buns were given to 15 people who are blind or visually impaired from three local organizations. According to the article, these 15 people then sent out information about the promotion, which ended up reaching over 800,000 people with vision loss!
Braille menus are one small way that restaurants can embrace blind or visually impaired customers. Some restaurants offer larger print menus as well. However, this sheds light on a larger issue.
As the Wimpy franchise realized that they were missing out on a customer segment, other corporations have made the same realization. Corporations like Apple have truly embraced accessibility for people who are blind or visually impaired by including built-in accessibility in many of their products. It is rare that a person who is blind or visually impaired can simply go into a store and be able to use a product right off the shelf. Typically, a device may have to be labeled with tactual markings, or memorized. Usually, small screen displays and touch screens are used for electronics. More often, businesses do not consider the impact this has on people who are blind or with low vision.
It takes a company to realize their responsibility to make their products accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired. Our dollars work just as well as any other person's!
The American Foundation for the Blind's consulting branch works with companies to make their products accessible to people who are blind or have low vision. AFB Tech has a lab where they can measure the contrast, clarity, and readability of a small screen display for persons with vision loss. And AFB's free online technology magazine, AccessWorld, evaluates mainstream and assistive technology. Explore and find out more through www.afb.org.
So a tip of the hat to Wimpy. Great story, and great moral. Remember, my dollar is worth the same as yours!
