Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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Making a Menu More Accessable (self.Blind)
submitted by orlanthi
I'm redoing the menus for my cafe and thought it best to ask first about how to make a version that is more accessible to people who have sight impairments.
Obviously I can make the font bigger but given access to colour printing, should I cange either the background colour or font colour? Currently the menu is simply balck and white A4 sized. It is fairly small font (about 14 point).
How large should I go? At what point would multiple pages become a problem? Is some form of colour better than others?
Of course I am aware that we are talking of a very board spectrum of possibilities here.
Obviously I can make the font bigger but given access to colour printing, should I cange either the background colour or font colour? Currently the menu is simply balck and white A4 sized. It is fairly small font (about 14 point).
How large should I go? At what point would multiple pages become a problem? Is some form of colour better than others?
Of course I am aware that we are talking of a very board spectrum of possibilities here.
LilacRose32 24 points 1y ago
Put a text version online
No fancy fonts
+ a braille version as already mentioned
No fancy fonts
+ a braille version as already mentioned
orlanthi [OP] 4 points 1y ago
We have tried to stay away from putting a priced menu on line as when we did, people refered back to one that was 3 years out of date and questioned the prices. We will do this though.
TechnicalPragmatist 1 points 1y ago
Keep the online one current then in a sense.
GTbuddha 9 points 1y ago
First, thank you for being considerate and awesome!
Yellow background with black type is the highest contrast for low vision folks.
If you are using a QR code to get people to your menu I believe that there is a way to make an all text version for folks, "click here for low vision menu" type of thing. I would make that box appear at the top in yellow with black background. Then if the low vision menu is also large font black letters on yellow background that would be helpful.
I rarely to out to eat alone so I'm usually willing to ask my friends or family to help me read if I can't or I will ask the wait staff.
Keeping being this awesome! We need more people like you in this world.
Yellow background with black type is the highest contrast for low vision folks.
If you are using a QR code to get people to your menu I believe that there is a way to make an all text version for folks, "click here for low vision menu" type of thing. I would make that box appear at the top in yellow with black background. Then if the low vision menu is also large font black letters on yellow background that would be helpful.
I rarely to out to eat alone so I'm usually willing to ask my friends or family to help me read if I can't or I will ask the wait staff.
Keeping being this awesome! We need more people like you in this world.
orlanthi [OP] 3 points 1y ago
Thank you. This is the sort of thing I never even considered.
WEugeneSmith 9 points 1y ago
Thanks for asking this question!
I always look online before going to a restaurant. ideally, an online menu would be available in a text version son screenreaders can read it.
A PDF is ok also, as screenreaders should have the function to use OCR to make these readable.
If you could make a braille version of your restaurant menu available, that would b e awesome for those who read braille.
I always look online before going to a restaurant. ideally, an online menu would be available in a text version son screenreaders can read it.
A PDF is ok also, as screenreaders should have the function to use OCR to make these readable.
If you could make a braille version of your restaurant menu available, that would b e awesome for those who read braille.
orlanthi [OP] 4 points 1y ago
I'm not certain how to go about creating a braille menu. Unless they are reuseable (laminated or some such), it may simply be uneconomical.
WEugeneSmith 7 points 1y ago
I have no idea how you would accomplish this, but I threw it out nonetheless. The fact that you are even thinking of ways to make your menu accessible speaks volumes about you. Consider the braille suggestion to be a wish list thing.
My personal biggest obstacle is online menues in jpg form (unreadable by screenreaders), or text/pdf menues in fancy fonts.
My personal biggest obstacle is online menues in jpg form (unreadable by screenreaders), or text/pdf menues in fancy fonts.
The_Alchemyst 6 points 1y ago
There are services that can print it for you on good sturdy plastic, you only need one copy to have available for those who need it. But honestly a pdf menu with like a QR code is the most accessible of all as blind people have whatever tools they need installed on their phone already.
witcwhit 5 points 1y ago
Economical or not, please be aware that if you are a business open to the public, you are legally required to have a braille menu available according to the ADA. Many restaurants are breaking the law in this regard, but if anyone ever chose to sue you for lack of ADA compliance, you'd lose in court.
Edit: I looked it up and I was unaware there is a loophole that most restaurants use to avoid creating braille menus: apparently, as long as your staff is required to read the full menu to sight impaired customers, you are in compliance. That said, it would make most people extremely uncomfortable to have the whole menu read out loud to them, so a braille option really is best.
Edit: I looked it up and I was unaware there is a loophole that most restaurants use to avoid creating braille menus: apparently, as long as your staff is required to read the full menu to sight impaired customers, you are in compliance. That said, it would make most people extremely uncomfortable to have the whole menu read out loud to them, so a braille option really is best.
orlanthi [OP] 6 points 1y ago
Being in the UK the rules are that we have to make "reasonable efforts" to cater to those wqith disabilities. We achieve this by either reading out the menu or guiding the customer though the options.
witcwhit 5 points 1y ago
Apologies for assuming you were in the US. As you can see in my edit, I was wrong about here, too, which was surprising to me because I'd always been told the braille menus were required. Personally, I wish they were and that all a restaurant had to do was send their menu to a national printing house for the blind to recieve several free braille copies to keep on hand, but that's just wishful thinking.
Regardless, if you could get even one copy brailled (maybe a local blindness advocacy organization could help you do this cheaply?) to keep on hand, it would certainly do a lot to make your braille reading patrons more comfortable.
Regardless, if you could get even one copy brailled (maybe a local blindness advocacy organization could help you do this cheaply?) to keep on hand, it would certainly do a lot to make your braille reading patrons more comfortable.
TechnicalPragmatist 0 points 1y ago
That’s being a bit bratty honestly.
Rhymershouse 3 points 1y ago
Yes. All the Braille menus I’ve ever seen are reusable and you take it from the table brefore the food comes. They’re is spill-resistant paper.
There are services that’ll do the Braille or you.
There are services that’ll do the Braille or you.
Its0nlyAPaperMoon 3 points 1y ago
You can laminate it, leave wide gaps between lines, and then use a Braille label maker to make little stickers with the raised dots under the words
TechnicalPragmatist 1 points 1y ago
Yes it can be reused. You would have a braille booklet. You would give it to the person to read, when they are done and have ordered or are ready to leave you ask for it back. So it’s definitely not single use. You would keep the booklet on hand. And yes you can lemonade it but most people just honestly do a book. But it’s not meant for the person to take or keep. It’s like the menus at a restaurant the fancy booklets they make of a menu or the nice lemonaded sheets. You’re suppose to read it, order from it then return it.
athennna 5 points 1y ago
Text version online, and an audio version would be pretty easy to do.
If you do a large print version, multiple pages are not an issue.
If you do a large print version, multiple pages are not an issue.
orlanthi [OP] 9 points 1y ago
Oh don't tempt me with an audio version. I'm just a frustrated voice over actor!
athennna 5 points 1y ago
Oh for sure do one then. I would do an audio file for each section, one for sandwiches, one for salads, one for drinks, etc. That way you only have to re record one section if a menu item changes. Bonus points if the listener can adjust playback speed.
solidDessert 4 points 1y ago
If you're curious about color combinations and font sizes, you could look up a color contrast tool. There are loads, but I use $1.
You're going to make a lot of people happy with AA coverage. AAA is awesome too if you can manage it.
You're going to make a lot of people happy with AA coverage. AAA is awesome too if you can manage it.
AccomplishedArtist5 3 points 1y ago
The biggest issue we (my wife has RP - some central vision but no night vision) come across around reading menus is the restaurant lighting - even if the text is readable in normal light, the lighting is often so dim that it's impossible to read it - or see her food for that matter.
Shadowwynd 2 points 1y ago
A menu conveys several things: Food Type (Drinks, Appetizers, Entrees, Soups, Desserts), Food Name, Food Price, and Food Description. The description is the least important of these four, assuming you have named things decently (e.g. are not going for "cute / word salad" in your names)
Example: I went to a milkshake shop; they sold milkshake named "ArchAngel" - made with ice cream, cream, strawberries, and chocolate cake (brownies). In this case, the name "ArchAngel" means nothing to me as a new patron, and "Strawberry and Chocolate Cake" in the description would have been a lot more useful. That being the case, I would expect people to know what a Caesar salad is without the description because it is much more common.
Here are my thoughts on menu accessibility.
Print menu:
1. Easy test: You (assuming normal vision) should be able to read all the important bits (Food Type, Food Names, and Price) of the menu comfortably at around six feet / two meters away, in the normal ambiance light of the restaurant, without straining or squinting. Have clear boundaries between Food Types (lines or whitespace or both).
2. Easy Test #2. Download an app such as SeeingAI on iOS (free). Point it at the menu, see how it reads.
3. Some people say yellow paper + black ink (which is good for some people with low vision), other people will say white paper, which is good for other people with low vision). I wouldn't stray too far away from either one of these. Don't go with craft paper or patterned paper.
4. There is debate over serif vs sans-serif fonts with no clear winner. I would personally use serif fonts for Food Types and sans-serif for the Food Names as I find sans-serif to be slightly more legible. In any case, the fonts should be simple and clean, not cursive or overly decorative.
5. If using color printing, include a picture of the items if possible; roughly 15% of the population has dyslexia of some type. Make sure that the information about the food is not obscured by the picture of the food (e.g. the text describing the taco is on top of the taco).
6. If at all possible, having one well-designed, easy-to-read, low-vision friendly menu would be better than having a separate low-vision menu.
​
Online menu:
1. DO NOT put a photo of your printed menu. Have a text-only version of the menu (Photos of the food are fine too, but the verbiage of the menu should be text so it can be read by a screenreader. Have this menu be easy to find on your website.
2. Use proper document Heading/Outline tags. E.g. Food Types are Heading1, Food Names are Heading2, etc. This lets someone quickly navigate the site, if they want a dessert which is the last thing, they can jump to "Dessert" without having to go through the entire menu from the start.
3. Use a clear font and make sure that it stands out well from the background. White and black or black on white are good starting options.
4. Have a telephone number as plain text on the website, ideally with the "tel:" tag. It should be easy for someone to find your number and call.
I can not stress the importance of the Online menu. Many of my blind clients first step in a new restaurant is to go online and look at the menu. This gets them familiar with what the restaurant offers and lets them go ahead and pick out what they want or at least start thinking about it before they ever step foot in the restaurant, and/or call the restaurant and ask questions in advance.
​
Braille Menu: This would be the icing on the cake, so to speak. About 5% of the population at large is low-vision / blind, and of those that are blind only about 10% read braille; this works out to 1 out of 2000 people. A Braille menu will be very impactful for the ones who needs it, but you should be the judge of where the break-even point would be. Braille menus can be created reasonably cheaply (from a word document or similar) from many places online that have Braille embossing services.
Example: I went to a milkshake shop; they sold milkshake named "ArchAngel" - made with ice cream, cream, strawberries, and chocolate cake (brownies). In this case, the name "ArchAngel" means nothing to me as a new patron, and "Strawberry and Chocolate Cake" in the description would have been a lot more useful. That being the case, I would expect people to know what a Caesar salad is without the description because it is much more common.
Here are my thoughts on menu accessibility.
Print menu:
1. Easy test: You (assuming normal vision) should be able to read all the important bits (Food Type, Food Names, and Price) of the menu comfortably at around six feet / two meters away, in the normal ambiance light of the restaurant, without straining or squinting. Have clear boundaries between Food Types (lines or whitespace or both).
2. Easy Test #2. Download an app such as SeeingAI on iOS (free). Point it at the menu, see how it reads.
3. Some people say yellow paper + black ink (which is good for some people with low vision), other people will say white paper, which is good for other people with low vision). I wouldn't stray too far away from either one of these. Don't go with craft paper or patterned paper.
4. There is debate over serif vs sans-serif fonts with no clear winner. I would personally use serif fonts for Food Types and sans-serif for the Food Names as I find sans-serif to be slightly more legible. In any case, the fonts should be simple and clean, not cursive or overly decorative.
5. If using color printing, include a picture of the items if possible; roughly 15% of the population has dyslexia of some type. Make sure that the information about the food is not obscured by the picture of the food (e.g. the text describing the taco is on top of the taco).
6. If at all possible, having one well-designed, easy-to-read, low-vision friendly menu would be better than having a separate low-vision menu.
​
Online menu:
1. DO NOT put a photo of your printed menu. Have a text-only version of the menu (Photos of the food are fine too, but the verbiage of the menu should be text so it can be read by a screenreader. Have this menu be easy to find on your website.
2. Use proper document Heading/Outline tags. E.g. Food Types are Heading1, Food Names are Heading2, etc. This lets someone quickly navigate the site, if they want a dessert which is the last thing, they can jump to "Dessert" without having to go through the entire menu from the start.
3. Use a clear font and make sure that it stands out well from the background. White and black or black on white are good starting options.
4. Have a telephone number as plain text on the website, ideally with the "tel:" tag. It should be easy for someone to find your number and call.
I can not stress the importance of the Online menu. Many of my blind clients first step in a new restaurant is to go online and look at the menu. This gets them familiar with what the restaurant offers and lets them go ahead and pick out what they want or at least start thinking about it before they ever step foot in the restaurant, and/or call the restaurant and ask questions in advance.
​
Braille Menu: This would be the icing on the cake, so to speak. About 5% of the population at large is low-vision / blind, and of those that are blind only about 10% read braille; this works out to 1 out of 2000 people. A Braille menu will be very impactful for the ones who needs it, but you should be the judge of where the break-even point would be. Braille menus can be created reasonably cheaply (from a word document or similar) from many places online that have Braille embossing services.
waterworld50 3 points 1y ago
(Black background- white text) makes it easier for people of low vision to see, (yellow text-black background), (green text- black background) you see the pattern.
Light on Light makes it more difficult for us.
Light on Light makes it more difficult for us.
niamhweking 3 points 1y ago
I'd also have a very large print version. Maybe 36 font or larger? Good contrast, black/white or yellow on black. No fancy font or decoration
Its0nlyAPaperMoon 3 points 1y ago
I would make at least one print copy of very big font (and sans serif) for seniors who don’t use mobile phones.
ktthemighty 2 points 1y ago
why sans serif? I mean, I am not a huge fan of serif...
Vast-Judge9526 3 points 1y ago
An online version would be great. I know that my VoiceOver on my phone sometimes struggles with PDF but some may have different
Experiences. As previously mentioned, for those who read Braille like myself, braille menus are also greatly appreciated although not very common unfortunately
Experiences. As previously mentioned, for those who read Braille like myself, braille menus are also greatly appreciated although not very common unfortunately
rory-games 3 points 1y ago
Hi I personally think you should also include a braille menu.
DHamlinMusic 8 points 1y ago
This isn’t very feasible for a smaller business cause of the cost of printing in braille, though a small amount of braille to make finding a Qr code to access an online version could work.
TechnicalPragmatist 1 points 1y ago
Qr codes is the best option, the cheapest dirtiest version and made quite accessible. An online menu with a qr code.with settings on the webpage to adjust for vi people or a separate one for them. If you are visually impaired click here after the qr code is scanned. I would also verbalize this to the patron.
I am totally blind and while braille menus are great I am a slow reader. What inevitably happens is I just ask the wait staff whats on the menu and go from there. Usually general options then figure out what I want. I can do the online stuff but usually don’t either. It’s just faster that way and much easier with no stress.
I am totally blind and while braille menus are great I am a slow reader. What inevitably happens is I just ask the wait staff whats on the menu and go from there. Usually general options then figure out what I want. I can do the online stuff but usually don’t either. It’s just faster that way and much easier with no stress.
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