Newsletter #3 Food Accessibility
Looking through the “inner lens” of accessible menus.
Greetings and a warm welcome to our vibrant community!
We're your team of four friends with diverse backgrounds, making compliance a breeze with real-life examples and actionable tips. Our newsletter aims to remind and support readers in establishing consistent accessibility practices within the organization.
To those who are new to our newsletter, go to the following link to read more about us and our mission: https://elegantlyaccessible.substack.com/p/newsletter-1
Today, we're starting our conversation with something close to everyone's hearts - our favorite food!
Food is a universal experience that ties us together and sheds light on the broader concept of accessibility and our shared humanity. It connects us to our roots and communities and acts as a lens through which we can better understand the intricacies of our society, culture, and collective human experience.
We hope our food stories serve as a positive reminder for you to contribute towards creating a more inclusive and accessible world~!
India’s Story
Favorite Restaurants
One of my favorite restaurants is Aladdin, a Mediterranean restaurant that has dishes like spanakopita and shawarma; the first one is usually made with layers of flaky filo dough with brushed butter with cheese and spinach in between the layers, and the other is a type of seasoned and marinated meat, usually grilled, and can be chicken or beef.
My second favorite restaurant is Eddy V’s, an upscale restaurant on the waterfront with a beautiful ocean view where they always have fresh seafood. Whenever my mom and I go there, I love eating their fish dishes and having their bread and butter because it gives me a nostalgic feeling and reminds me of the different kinds of fish I had gotten to eat when my mom cooked it for me in different ways at home. They have amazing other foods like calamari, poke nachos, and more.
People’s Biases
Some think of gyros only when they think of Greek food, a lot of bread, and other heavy meats. Traditional Greek food is exceptionally healthy, with many vegetarian and seafood dishes. Traditional Greek food has many anti-inflammatory benefits and is very healthy in many ways.
Access Preference
I prefer to view the menu by having the menu in Braille and then asking the waitstaff to describe some of the dishes to me so I can get a sense of what will be served and in what way. If no Braille menus are available, I need to have them in an accessible digital format that I can view by scanning a QR code or going to their website. I have a tool called Orcam that can help me read the menu, but it works less effectively when the lighting is low or there is loud music or customers because I can’t hear the device speaking.
Here is a quick video of India reading menu using OrCam, a smart AI device that reads text from any surface:
Video Description: India, with short curly hair in glasses, is holding a menu with two hands at a restaurant. OrCam, an AI device that reads text on any surface, reads the menu out loud to India.
Pet Peeves
Loud music and customers at a restaurant make it hard to hear my devices, and menus that are screenshots or PDFs that are not readable with my devices. The worst is also when they say, “We have a Braille menu, but we don’t know where it is,” or “We have one, but it hasn’t been updated in a while, so it isn’t up to date.” It’s great, very helpful.
Positive Experience
Shake Shake has kiosks where you can place your order using their text-to-speech accessible system. And both WoodRanch and the Red O in San Diego had Braille menus, which was amazing. I cried at both places when they gave the menus to me because I felt so seen and treated with dignity.
Ojen’s Story
Favorite Restaurants
My favorite restaurants are Sol Agave, Cheesecake Factory, La Piazza, and Marmalade Café.
People’s Biases
Servers believe I could grab the menu wherever they lay it on the table.
Access Preference
Ideally, I want to know what I’m reading and how. A lot of jargon is no good, and no pictures aren’t helping.
Pet Peeves
About 90% of the time, when I read restaurant menus, I can’t! Muscular Dystrophy does not allow me to use my hands or arms, let alone my neck muscles, which are too weak to move my head. Therefore, there is no way for me to read a menu without assistance. I wish I could read it by myself. I wish I didn’t have to say a little closer, a little farther, a little to the left, a little to the right, for me to read the menu. Sometimes I find it easy to read menu items, which allows me to make clear and desirable choices. It’s very discouraging to read menus when it’s on the table 25 inches away. The lettering is small and with bad backgrounds, especially when the lighting is low.
Positive Experience
On the positive side, when I asked the hostess to describe things I already knew I liked, for example, children’s panini, I had an idea of how the restaurant preps the flavor and cooking style of the dish. On the contrary, I only pick things I already might know, like the main ingredients, rather than being more adventurous by reading the menu by myself; if the menu were larger text with better backgrounds to accommodate my lack of mobility.
Sophia’s Story
Favorite Restaurants
I love going out to eat and trying new things. How fresh the food tastes is important to me, as well as the flavors. I enjoy the Fresh Corn Grill food, but the closest location does not have excellent or accessible parking. I order takeout most of the time. Aside from the terrible parking situation, which is much more challenging to navigate with a walker, I highly recommend the salmon tacos! They are delicious and come with salsa, guacamole, pico de gallo, and lettuce.
Access Preference
I like the menu with bigger fonts, 200% like the In-N-Out drive-thru menu!
Pet Peeves
The other downside is that the writing on the menu could be teeny tiny and easier to read. I see two downsides to the restaurant, one of which I’ve mentioned: the lack of parking and the lack of parking spaces available.
Positive Experience
The people who work there are always kind to me on the few occasions I have gone to the restaurant, and I am grateful for their kindness.
Yoonah’s Story
Favorite Restaurants
Here are my two favorite restaurants:
Cafe Gratitude, a vegan restaurant. My favorite go-to menu is “Whole Bowl,” which is a mixed bowl with braised butternut squash, stewed adzuki beans, purple cabbage kimchi, sea vegetables, sautéed kale, garlic tahini, toasted tamari almonds, on top of brown rice and quinoa.
Borit Gogae, a Korean restaurant with many authentic vegetarian banchans, dishes with so many delicious flavors - savory, earthy, warm, and nutty - and a subtle hint of sesame oil!
People’s Biases
When I talk about my Korean background, people almost always talk about their love of Korean BBQ and Kimchi and ask if I have a favorite Korean BBQ outing place. However, my family and I barely went out to eat Korean BBQ; if we did, we would buy the meat from the Korean market and grill it from home. We will have Korean BBQ probably 4 or 5 times per year. I don’t hate them, but that’s not my usual craving.
I grew up enjoying my mom’s Korean banchans, side dishes with warm, earthy, nutty flavors, mainly vegetables. The flavor might be considered mild by those accustomed to stronger tastes. My last craving was steamed white rice with a hint of soybean paste wrapped in a steamed pumpkin leaf. So toasty and juicy to my taste buds. Yum~! And the banchans I recently made are Korean spinach and cucumber side dishes.
Access Preference
• I prefer a printed menu with images; I will go to Yelp to access the photos if there is no food photo.
• I enjoyed ordering from the Kiosk at my own pace and picking the ones that look good in pictures.
Pet Peeves
• The restaurants with food and ingredient names I’m not familiar with and that do not have images. Once, at a fancy restaurant, I picked a dish that sounded good but looked completely different than what I had expected.
• The QR code menu is hard to access due to connection issues and slow loading. I prefer restaurants that offer a printed menu option.
Positive Experience
In N’ Out’s simple, straightforward menu with large pictures.
Thank you for reading about our favorite food and menu experiences. We hope our stories were insightful!
Next week, we will be back with practical tips that you can apply to your work. India will share what is considered good Alt Text, Captions, and Image Descriptions that work best for her. Stay tuned~!
Before we wrap up, we have an exciting announcement! We’ve welcomed a new team member who will provide new perspectives and valuable insights!
Sophia Scozzesi
Accessibility Tester
French • Mexican • American | Ataxia (Neuromuscular Disorder) • Nystagmus | 36 years old | Kurzweil 3000 (Screen Reader) | Love doing Crossword Puzzle during my downtime
“Living with Ataxia due to a brain injury at the age of 25. I had never heard of Ataxia, but when I looked it up, it was a “neurological sign consisting of lack of voluntary coordination of muscle movements.” In other words, I shake a lot. I started to look at the world differently and realized that people don’t grasp common sense when it comes to seeing me uniquely challenged, nor do they see the lack of inclusivity in the world. I want to deliver information, experiences and triumphs about Ataxia and other challenges to help dissolve the stigma around disabilities. People with disabilities are faced with too much isolation to handle at times, and right here is a place where people with disabilities can share their stories and shed light for the world to become more inclusive in every way possible.”
If you have any inquiries or specific requests, please get in touch with us via email at AccessibilityChamps@gmail.com
If you need to test keyboard accessibility for your design, please consult with India:
India Kaltsas West’s Linktree
If you want to read more about Ojen and Sophia’s stories, check out their blog at:
Problem Collective
If you want to see more inclusive illustration and education posts by Yoonah Bae:
A11y Champs | Accessibility Education