How to Make a Braille Menu

A lot of restaurants are starting to serve up accessibility for blind and vision impaired customers with braille menu options. So where do you even start in creating a braille menu for your restaurant? Parts Town has a guide to help you get the information you need to give your customers a great dining experience.

1. Consider Menu Options

If you were thinking about making changes to your menu, the time to do that is before you place an order for a braille version. Braille menus cost a bit more than normal ones and should have the most up-to-date items because you won’t want to replace them soon after getting them in stock. If you’re looking to make seasonal changes in the menu, we recommend asking for an insert as opposed to a full menu change. This will save you money in the long run.

2. Contemplate Design

Think about how you want them bound as well as the layout. You can keep it similar to your current menu or lay it out in a simple way to keep it concise for the reader. You don’t want to add a bunch of extra details that will keep the reader from finding the food options easily. Also, since photos are less important in braille sales materials, well-written menu descriptions are key to promoting your dishes.

3. Find the Right Braille Company

There are a few different companies that will convert your menu to braille, but you have to do some research. Much like you wouldn’t want someone to translate your menu to a new language using Google Translate, you want someone who knows how to read braille to get the job done correctly. It’s highly recommended you try the Perkins Library braille printing services. This library has been around helping the blind since 1829, perfecting their craft along the way.

4. Braille Process Resources for Restaurants

According to the Perkins Library, you’ll find that a disposable braille menu is typically about $0.50 a page and a reusable option can cost about $35 per menu. When it comes to format, make sure your submission is in the form of a Word Doc in a linear format without boxes or graphs. If your submission doesn’t fit these guidelines, then you’ll be charged a $30 conversion fee. Also note that once the document is in the correct format, it is stored for future use in the event you need additional copies of the document later. Each project can take anywhere from 1 to 2 weeks to complete, so be sure to take that into consideration when playing a menu order.

5. Things to Watch Out For

You don’t want to choose the first braille conversion company you find without doing your research. There are a few aspects to watch out for when considering ways to accommodate vision-impaired customers. These include:

• Braille Illiteracy – You want to make sure that the company you use to translate your menu into braille is doing it correctly. The last typing you need when trying to create a better dining experience for someone vision impaired is to have the menu read incorrectly.


• Going Overboard – While it may look visually pleasing to have a large, leather-bound menu for your blind customers, it could make your customers feel a bit self-conscious about reading it and looking different in front of others.


• Menu Apps – Apps like MenuVox can be nice to allow customers to change the sizing for better visibility as well as offer a read-aloud option, but not a lot of people will want a menu read out loud to them when in a loud, chatty restaurant dining room.