Braille Menus: Unblind Dining for Vision-impaired Consumers

Braille Restaurant Menus

Imagine walking into a restaurant and being told there are no menus available; you'll have to wait until a server has time to recite the menu aloud to you before you can order. If there's too much background noise or your server is juggling several tables and can't get to you for a while, you'll just have to make do. Maybe it'll be faster if you use your smartphone to look up the menu online – hopefully the version you find isn't outdated, missing information, or lacking vital allergen warnings.

For many blind and visually impaired restaurant patrons, this kind of experience is a frustrating daily reality they must navigate every time they go out to eat. Most dining establishments lack braille menus for customers with limited vision. This dearth of accessible options often leaves blind diners reliant on assistance from waitstaff or a companion to read the menu, restricting their independence and adding unnecessary stress to what should be a simple, enjoyable experience.

Table of Contents

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What is a Braille Menu?

Braille is a touch-based system of language that uses raised dots to represent letters of the alphabet, numbers, and punctuation.1 Users read braille by running their fingertips along each line on a page from left to right. By using braille, blind and low-vision people can independently read and study the written word, including restaurant menus, cookbooks, business contracts, insurance policies, and more.

Unfortunately, due to the unique three-dimensional format, braille documents can't be produced by a regular printing press. This contributes to the confusion surrounding braille menus, leaving many restaurant owners concerned about braille printing costs and at a loss for finding a publisher.

"A lot of the time, the problem is that these restaurant owners, managers, corporate, they just don't know that this service is available," says Tanja Milojevic, a member of the library team at Perkins School for the Blind. "And I don't know if they think about it much."

Working at Perkins, Milojevic has converted countless documents to braille, including much of the braille found on campus as well as external documents such as restaurant menus and conference itineraries. Since 2007, the Perkins school has been offering braille production, a low-cost braille printing service that many people aren't aware exists.

Learn about Perkins' braille printing services

Are Restaurants Required to Have Braille Menus?

According to the CDC, approximately 5 percent of Americans aged 18 and over are blind or seriously vision impaired, even when using glasses or other corrective lenses.2 This adds up to over 13 million individuals living in the United States, D.C., and U.S. territories. Despite these numbers, restaurants in the U.S. aren't required to keep large-print or braille menus on hand – provided at least one person working there is willing to read the menu aloud to individuals who request assistance.3

This less-than-ideal compromise often shifts the burden of accommodating vision-impaired diners to already overworked waitstaff who usually aren't trained for the task and can end up significantly increasing wait times for other diners at surrounding tables.

It can also put blind and low-vision diners under an uncomfortable spotlight when requesting additional assistance, causing many to eschew eating at new restaurants altogether.

Milojevic, who has low vision herself, explains:

"You have to take someone who is busy, who is trying to help other customers and they have a lot to do, and have them stand there and read the entire menu to you. And then a lot of the time, people will kind of skim over the menu when they read it, so if you want to know what the ingredients of a dish are, what the price is, what the calorie count is, you then become very annoying to this person who has to pause, read it to you, go back, etc.

"It affects the dining experience. Your privacy is taken away a little bit there, and then you feel bad, because they've gone out of their way to read this menu… It kind of just snowballs, and it would be so much easier if that whole part was just taken out of the equation."

Implementing Braille Menus at Your Establishment

Several major restaurant chains have chosen to make braille menus available to customers, including brand name powerhouses Wendy's, Starbucks, Olive Garden, and Outback Steakhouse.4,5

Interestingly, the decision to add braille menus at all Starbucks locations came after management learned that a blind customer had been ordering simple drip coffee because he wasn't aware that other options existed.5 Highlighting an often overlooked aspect of alternative accommodations, this turn of events raises the question: Are restaurant owners missing out on potential sales due to inaccessibility?

According to Milojevic, coordinators for conferences and other events for the blind do research on which businesses are accessible for low-vision visitors. They often distribute that information to event participants and direct them toward accessible establishments in the area.

And just like sighted people, many independent blind diners will check out a restaurant's website before visiting it in person, using screen readers and AI programs to research the venue's amenities.

"When someone is sitting down and doing research on which restaurant they can go to, say they're blind and they're taking a bunch of their friends with them, they want to set it up so they're going to a place that's accessible," says Milojevic, explaining how advertising alternative menu options can drive business.

"If it says on the website that it's got braille menus, [customers] are going to know that's exactly what they need," she continues. "If that restaurant's familiar with the process of braille menus, it just brings them business in general. I don't think they can go wrong by adding that… That kind of strategy is only going to help them get more interest and customers."

Mitigating the Cost of Braille Menus

Some locations may already have a braille menu, but they've forgotten to update it as products have changed, meaning that the information the menu contains is no longer accurate. For many restaurateurs, keeping up with changing menu items can bloat the printing cost of braille menus and complicate the process. A braille menu that's out of date isn't very useful to low-vision customers.

To address this, many venues choose to print a "core menu" that doesn't change frequently or need updating. Servers can verbally communicate additional seasonal or limited-time offerings to guests – a method that's already commonly employed to inform sighted patrons of such specials.

Eateries can also cut costs by having seasonal and limited-time offerings printed on a separate insert, rather than reprinting the entire menu.

"I've seen that a lot, actually, and that is a brilliant idea," says Milojevic. "They'll just come to us and say 'Can you produce a seasonal menu for us? That's changed.' And we'll do that insert and send it to them, and it's cheaper than the core menu."

Disposable Braille Menus

Another concern that's often raised is sanitation. Many restaurants have switched to disposable menus in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, but may think the increased cost of braille-printed documents makes them too expensive for single-use applications.

Restaurant owners and operators often aren't aware that many independent braille printing organizations exist, and a wide variety of pricing is available from one publisher to another. Disposable braille menus do exist, and while they're not as cheap as typical paper menus, they're affordable enough for occasional use when one is requested by a blind customer.

"It's not as intimidating as it sounds initially," says Milojevic, referring to the process of converting restaurant menus to braille. "I understand that getting some service that you don't know much about, getting the commitment to move forward with it sometimes is tough, because you're not really sure if it's worth the money spent. But it's a clean additional option to have for the inclusion purposes of your customers, and there's always going to be someone who prefers to have that independent experience of sitting down with a braille menu and figuring out what they want just like anybody else."

"It's not tough to get these things converted," she adds. "It's a quick process."

Alternative Menu Options for Visually Impaired Guests

For many eateries today, large-print and braille menus aren't included for reasons ranging from a lack of awareness that such options even exist, to confusion over how and where to get them made, to challenges caused by seasonal menu changes and new Covid-19 sanitation procedures. Regardless of whether it's a simple oversight or a losing cost/benefit analysis on the part of the eatery, it still boils down to a lack of accessibility for vision-impaired guests.

Luckily for blind and low-vision diners, advancing technologies and changing attitudes toward physical menus – as well as the germs they carry – are driving new innovations in digital menu accessibility that may help level the playing field.

Going Digital with QR Code Menus

The spread of Covid-19 upended the restaurant industry in many ways, not the least of which was how we approach menus. More and more restaurants have opted for touch-free digital formats, such as publishing their menu online and placing QR codes at table tops for guests to quickly scan with their mobile devices.

Combined with advances in screen-reading software technology, this shift may have inadvertently improved accessibility for sight-challenged diners at many eateries. Able to simply scan a code that navigates to the venue's website and have the menu read aloud, blind diners with screen-reading phone apps are no longer left in the dark.

Other Apps & Services for Vision-impaired Diners

In addition to new and better screen-reading software, a number of websites and apps have sprung up to assist vision-challenged users with navigating the world of the sighted.

  • Good Food Talks, a U.K.-based service that exists as both an app and a website, enables restaurant managers to upload their menu to the GFT database. The menu is then published in a format that's optimized for screen readers and can be easily updated to keep up with seasonal changes.
  • Social networking solutions also exist. Be My Eyes is a free service that connects blind and low-vision people with sighted volunteers who provide assistance with anything from reading a product label to navigating through an unfamiliar neighborhood to identifying colors and sizes when shopping for new clothes. Launched in 2015, the app now boasts over 250,000 users and 4 million volunteers6 as of 2021.
  • Aira, a similar subscription service, also uses video chats to connect blind users with specially trained staff – for a fee. Although some free amenities are available, plans that include on-demand video chatting with a trained expert range from $29 to $199 per month.7
  • Artificial intelligence apps are also available for Apple and Android devices. Designed for iOS, Seeing AI uses the operator's smartphone camera to identify, read, and describe documents, product labels, barcodes, people, places, colors, and even money. It features multiple channels, each of which is fine-tuned for a different need.
  • Lookout by Google also uses artificial intelligence to scan the user's surroundings through their phone's camera and is designed for Android operating systems. Available in dozens of languages, the app has five different specialized modes including text, explore, food labels, documents, and currency.

So Why Invest in Braille Restaurant Menus?

At the end of the day, nearly all of these apps and services rely on shifting the burden of providing an accessible menu to the customer, not the restaurant. And for older diners, who comprise the majority of sight-challenged people and aren't as nimble with new technology, simply learning how to use these various programs and devices presents an additional obstacle to independence.

No matter how prevalent digital solutions become, there will still be many vision-impaired people who need access to a physical menu when dining out. Providing alternative options such as large-print and braille menus to patrons is about more than just a potential return on investment – it's a matter of human dignity, and it speaks volumes about a restaurant's management style.

"I think there's always going to be people that prefer the low-tech solution," says Milojevic. "Maybe they don't feel comfortable with technology, or they're older, maybe they prefer something concrete they can hold and read the old-fashioned way. There's always going to be someone who prefers to have that independent experience of sitting down with a braille menu and figuring out what they want.

"The fact that they have the choice to read all of the prices just like anybody else who would be reading a digital menu or a large-print menu or a regular menu, it just levels the playing field for everyone that might come into the restaurant."

It isn't just the 13 million blind and low-vision people in the U.S. who notice or care about such accommodations, either – their close-knit community of friends, advocates, and family members are also unlikely to frequent an establishment that seems indifferent to their loved ones' needs. As instant communication methods and wide-spread sharing platforms provide increasing levels of on-demand feedback for users, it won't take long for sight-challenged individuals to spread the word about their disappointing experiences at unprepared eateries.

Changing Demographics Change the Face of the Restaurant Industry

According to the World Health Organization, the proportion of the world's population over 60 years old is predicted to almost double in the coming years, rising from 12% to 22% by the year 2050.8 Along with these changing demographics will come changes in many venues' customer base, as well as increased emphasis on accessibility for all.

Age-related Macular Degeneration, or AMD, damages a person's ability to read and is a leading cause of vision loss in people 50 and older.9 Although it doesn't usually cause complete blindness, it can cause blind spots and increasingly blurred vision as time goes on. AMD greatly inhibits a person's independence, making it difficult to cook, drive, or read small print.

As the country's population continues to age and life expectancy remains high, the number of guests requiring large-print and braille menus is likely to continue increasing for the foreseeable future. It makes sense for restaurant owners to stay ahead of the curve by investing in a mix of menu options, including digital, large-print, and braille menus.

"Maybe it's never going to be a humongous need, in terms of what materials are used in restaurants," says Milojevic. "But I always think that it's important to at least have the option. Show that you're thinking about it, and you'll have a huge customer base that will be loyal to you because you're doing it right. You have several options to try to accommodate anybody who might come in.

"It's the thought that counts, and people appreciate that you've gone through the extra steps to include everybody."

Resources for Restaurant Owners

Curious about braille menus and digital accessibility but don't know where to start? These tips and resources can help.

Perkins Library Braille Printing Services

  • Disposable Menus: Pricing is typically $0.50 per braille page; the conversion ratio is generally three braille pages to one Microsoft Word page. The Perkins Library will always provide an estimate for any braille printing order before moving forward with the project.
  • Reusable Menus: Average pricing is $35.00 per menu but can vary. Each menu comes with thick plastic covers, a printed label identifying the type of menu and restaurant name, and a durable plastic binding comb.
  • Conversion Fee: If the original document provided by the restaurant isn't in the correct format, a conversion fee of $30 will apply. The conversion fee is charged once; the converted file is then stored for future use, so if a restaurant requests additional copies of the same menu, they won't have to pay another conversion fee.
  • Shipping: The Perkins Library offers a free shipping option called Free Matter for the Blind; if restaurants choose this option, there is no tracking number provided and the order may take longer to ship. Restaurants can also choose UPS shipping with tracking; this option incurs an additional shipping fee.
  • Prerequisites: Each project requires 1 to 2 weeks turnaround time. Restaurant owners should provide their menu in the form of a Word document in linear format (meaning no columns, boxes, or decorative graphics), without any comments or track changes enabled. If the restaurant doesn't provide the menu in this format, the conversion fee will apply.
  • Contact Information: To get a quote, operators can contact Milojevic at tanja.milojevic@perkins.org for more information. Operators should include their billing and shipping address, contact name, email address, and phone number.

Large-print Menus

Most publishers that print a venue's standard menu can also create large-print menus. Large-print menus should use an easy-to-read font such as Times New Roman or Arial, in 16- to 18-point type. Decorative elements and colors should be kept to a minimum or removed altogether, to make it easier for low-vision users to read.

Creating Menu QR Codes

Using QR codes is a simple way to digitize your menu, although it's important to make sure your digital menu is screen-reader accessible.

  1. First, choose a QR code generator. Many free websites and apps are available for this purpose.
  2. Choose the type of content that'll appear and enter your data. Avoid using a scanned image or photograph of your menu, as users with a screen reader won't be able to "see" it. You can use a PDF if it's a text PDF that's been formatted with proper tagging, not a scanned image.
  3. If your menu changes often, or even occasionally, consider downloading a dynamic QR code so you can easily update the content in the future.
  4. Test the QR code to ensure it's working as intended.
  5. Distribute the QR code.
  6. Train staff on assisting blind diners with locating the QR code and taking a picture of it. This is another opportunity to consider adding braille – a label printed in braille that marks the QR code's location can help low-vision users locate it themselves.

Formatting Tips for Digital Menus

As noted before, screen readers only work with webpages that are formatted correctly. Screen readers convert webpages into plain text, then read them in a linear format. Here are some tips for optimizing screen-reader accessibility on your venue's website:

  • Provide detailed and accurate link names. For example, a link from the restaurant's home page to the daily lunch special menu should be clearly labeled as such.
  • Reduce clutter and remove unnecessary graphic elements. Modern web design has been trending toward clean, minimal layouts for the last several years, so this is good design practice all around.
  • Use header tags to indicate headers. Screen readers don't prioritize information based on font size, bolding, or other visual cues.
  • Include detailed alt text. When a screen reader "sees" an image or graphic, it'll read the image's alt text to describe it. If there is no alt text, the screen reader will skip the image entirely. When making graphics that have text, such as header and footer banners, include those same words in the image's alt text, so screen readers can understand it.
  • Avoid using a scanned image or photograph of your menu on your website and/or social media pages. Screen readers can't read those images.
  • The same linear word document that's used to print your braille menu can also be added to your website so vision-impaired users can access it with their screen reader. If your document must be converted before it can be printed, the staff at Perkins Library will gladly send you the converted file so you can add it to your website.

If you're unsure how accessible your website is, Milojevic recommends asking a friend with a screen reader to check it out or posting on social media asking if any of your followers can help. Many people are happy to help, and it shows that your restaurant is taking extra steps to include everyone and promote accessibility.

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References

  1. History of Braille. BrailleWorks. Accessed May 2021.
  2. Disability and Health Data Systems, Explore Data by Location. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Accessed May 2021.
  3. ADA Live! Episode 4: Effective Communication. ADA Live!, Southeast ADA Center. Accessed May 2021.
  4. Major Restaurants Now Have Braille Menus for the Blind, But There is Still a Void. Patch News. Accessed May 2021.
  5. How American Restaurants Fail to Accommodate Blind Diners. Mic.com. Accessed May 2021.
  6. Be My Eyes: Our Story. Be My Eyes. Accessed May 2021.
  7. Aira Personal Pricing Plans. Aira. Accessed May 2021.
  8. Ageing and Health. World Health Organization (WHO). Accessed May 2021.
  9. Age-related Macular Degeneration. National Eye Institute (NEI). Accessed May 2021.