Local restaurants line High Street. Credit: Daniel Bush | Campus Photo Editor
Imagine walking into a local coffee shop to order a delicious pastry and coffee. The menu has several enticing options, including bagels, muffins and a variety of flavored lattes.?
The issue is, someone with a visual impairment would not be able to read those options, as many restaurants do not have accessible menu formats.
The Main Menu Project, a student organization, aims to improve accessibility by creating screen-reader friendly menu formats for local restaurants and 肠补蹿és. On the menu for this month is the organization’s second annual “Beyond the Menu: An Evening of Conversation and Ideas” event from 6-8 p.m. Sunday in the Ohio Stater’s Room at the Ohio Union.
“The goal is to raise awareness about the challenges faced by individuals with visual impairments and the solutions that improve accessibility, and to build connections between different organizations that work in this area,” Madeline Price, a fifth-year in biochemistry and French, and treasurer of The Main Menu Project, said.
Beyond the Menu will begin with a panel on accessibility issues and give students the chance to engage with individuals from different backgrounds and with different perspectives, Owen Borden, a second-year in chemical and biomolecular engineering and president of The Main Menu Project, said in an email.?
“This includes hearing from researchers at Ohio State’s medical center who work on combatting vision loss diseases, individuals with low vision who experience the effects of accessibility efforts — or lack thereof — daily and community leaders who are passionate about closing the accessibility gap in Columbus,” Borden said.
After guests enjoy the panel and food provided by The Main Menu Project, Borden said the event will function as an open house of student organizations, such as Ohio State’s chapter of Guiding Eyes for the Blind, a nonprofit organization that trains and provides guide dogs to people with vision loss.
“Students will learn about organizations right here at Ohio State doing great work in the realm of accessibility,” Borden said. “It’s a great way for interested students to build connections and get involved.”
Price said an event like this is invaluable because it offers the chance to hear firsthand accounts of everyday accessibility challenges facing the low-vision community.
“This type of event is not something you hear about often, and having an event to raise awareness really means a lot to people,” Price said. “It changes the way they think about these issues and accessibility.”
Price said the low-vision community encompasses all types of visual impairments.
“It’s everyone from your friend with slightly thicker glasses than yours to someone who is completely blind,” Price said. “We serve that whole spectrum of people. Even if the visual impairment is invisible, it’s still important.”
Screen-reader friendly menus solve many of the problems with inaccessible menu formats, according to Price.
“Often, PDFs and online menus are formatted in a way that the screen reader on the phone has absolutely no idea what’s on the screen,” Price said.?
Price said many people question why The Main Menu Project does not use braille menus, but she said it ultimately boils down to the cost.
“It’s really expensive to print braille menus,” Price said. “It gets very cost prohibitive for restaurants, and we provide our service free of charge, so we prefer low-cost solutions … Also, a lot of people who are visually impaired lose their vision later in life. They don’t know braille because they didn’t learn braille when they were younger.”?
Price said a list of the restaurants The Main Menu Project works with can be found on their website. One of the 肠补蹿és they work with is Stauf’s Coffee Roasters, and many of their locations feature screen-reader friendly menus.
“We take that menu, transform it into an accessible PDF, then make an NFC tag, which works the same way as Apple Pay,” Price said. “If you tap your phone to the tag, a link to the menu will automatically pop up on your screen, and you can tap it and access the menu.”
Borden said Beyond the Menu is the first step in achieving greater accessibility in the local community.
“There is always more work to do,” Borden said. “The Main Menu Project is open to anyone who wants to make a real difference in the accessibility of the Columbus community. We are dedicated to service and are always happy to share what we do.”
More details about the event can be found on The Main Menu Project’s Instagram.
