Young Indians launch Braille menus for visually impaired diners in Jamshedpur

Jamshedpur: Reading a menu at a restaurant may be a non-issue for many of us, but for those who are blind or visually impaired; this is just one of the many hurdles they have to face in a world that has not been made accessible for them. CII Young Indians Jamshedpur is taking a positive step towards inclusivity and accessibility by introducing Braille menus in restaurants. Through this program eleven restaurants in Jamshedpur have started presenting menu cards in Braille script so that visually impaired can go to the restaurant and place their order by themselves.

This initiative was launched on Tuesday, 19th March by the CII Young Indians accessibility team, which came up with the idea after meeting some restaurant operators. Braille menu was launched for these 11 restaurants today-Brown Town Roastery Cafe, Little Italy, Mocha, Oxygen, Tonik, Kaidi Kitchen, Prabhuji, Bon Appetite, The Dugout, Unplugged and Shizki.

Randeep Singh, Secretary, JHRA, Harshdeep Singh of New Gangaur Sweets, Ankita Naredi, Chair, Accessibility Vertical- Yi, Shilpa Dhanuka and Mridul Goyal, Co-Chair, Accessibility Vertical- Yi, Randeep Singh, Secretary, JHRA, Barkha Kedia, Sheetal Agiwal and other members of Yi were present at the launch.

On the launch day, Young Indians welcomed visually impaired children from Divyajyoti Netraheen Sansthan, who placed their orders using Braille menus.

The initiative of the Accessibility Vertical of Jamshedpur Chapter of Young Indians will change the lives of visually impaired people of the city.

“Young Indians had contacted us and asked us to make menu cards in Braille script. We really liked the initiative and had provided our menu cards for them at the restaurant. Yi got it done in Braille script for the restaurant. These Braille script cards will be kept here, in this restaurant from today, for blind people. JHRA will encourage other resturants to use braille menu cards, ” Randeep Singh, Secretary, JHRA.

Printed menus and the general absence of Braille alternatives make menus inaccessible to the visually impaired. It was a life changing experience to see these children read the menu card for the first time in their life. Their excitement and expression was priceless.

Shilpa Dhanuka Co-Chair, Accessibility- Young Indians, Jamshedpur

“We’ve specially ordered Braille menu cards from Chandigarh. To promote inclusivity, we encourage other restaurants to offer Braille menus. Restaurants can contact any Yi member, and we’ll help you acquire them,”

Ankita Naredi, Chair, Accessibility- Young Indians, Jamshedpur.