[Nfbk] Fwd: [napub] FW: Food Store offers Signs in braille

Sat Oct 22 06:22:22 UTC 2011

While this may be the first "Whole Foods" store to offer braille, it is not
the first supermarket to offer braille. When I lived in the Cincinnati Area
(at least ten years ago now), a new Kroger store opened in an area that has
a lot of blind people and it was labeled in braille.

I am curious about the name tags being in braille. It could be helpful for a
deaf-blind individual to have the person place the name tag in that person's
hand so they would know who was helping them, but I certainly wouldn't want
to encourage blind people in general to feel up the sighted person to find
out their name. Personally, I would think it rude if that person did not
introduce themselves.

Cindy

-----Original Message-----
From: nfbk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfbk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of
Scott Spaulding
Sent: Friday, October 21, 2011 9:46 AM
To: NFB of Kentucky Internet Mailing List
Subject: [Nfbk] Fwd: [napub] FW: Food Store offers Signs in braille

Sent from my iPod

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Andrews, David B (DEED)" <David.B.Andrews at state.mn.us>
Date: October 21, 2011 9:29:11 AM EDT
To: "blind-cooks at nfbnet.org," <napub at nfbnet.org>
Subject: [napub] FW: Food Store offers Signs in braille
Reply-To: NFBnet National Association to Promote the Use of Braille Mailing
List <napub at nfbnet.org>

________________________________
From: Instructional Resource Centers for the Blind & Visually Impaired
<IRCBVI at LISTSERV.STATE.SD.US>
Sent: Wednesday, October 19, 2011 6:39 AM
To: IRCBVI at LISTSERV.STATE.SD.US <IRCBVI at LISTSERV.STATE.SD.US>
Subject: Food Store offers Signs in braille

Foods store offers signs in Braille to help blind shoppers - The Boston
Globe

Small touches make things clear

Joshua Goldenberg, 7, with help from his father, Evan Goldenberg, and
Kimberly Ballard, of the National Braille Press, added Braille labels to
fruit at

Whole Foods in Newtonville yesterday.
By Johnny Diaz

Globe Staff / October 15, 2011

NEWTON - The shoppers descended on the produce aisle, but instead of
reaching out for the fresh papayas and melons, they grazed their fingers
over small

labels at the bottom of the display cabinets that told them about each
product.

The shoppers were blind or visually impaired, and they were at the Whole
Foods in Newtonville trying out the first food labels in Braille at a
supermarket
on the East Coast; many said they found the experience liberating.

"It's a sense of freedom, to be able to make your own choice,'' said Joe
Quintanilla, one of the shoppers. "Sometimes, I feel guilty having someone
read me everything that is there on a label.''

The labels are the brainchild of a blind first-grader from California,
Joshua Goldenberg, who, with the help of his parents, lobbied Whole Foods to
make its Thousand Oaks store the first in the country to deploy product
signs in Braille.

He was in Newtonville yesterday to participate as Whole Foods brought the
Braille labels to Massachusetts.

Goldenberg's journey began with a simple question. Shopping for batteries
with his mother earlier this year, 7-year-old Joshua asked her why there
were not signs in Braille for him and other blind shoppers.

"We didn't have answer,'' the boy's father, Evan, said yesterday.

The family reached out to Whole Foods, which responded enthusiastically to
Joshua's request.

"We wanted to do it for Josh to make a difference in his life,'' said Ashley
Eaton, a marketing supervisor for Whole Foods in Thousand Oaks.

Whole Foods launched a Braille Independence Initiative and chose the
Newtonville location as its next installation because of the store's
closeness to the

Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown and the Carroll Center for the
Blind in Newton.

The grocery store chain is working on the project with the National Braille
Press, a nonprofit publisher of children's books, textbooks, and tests in
Braille.

Yesterday, representatives from the Perkins School and the Carroll Center
tested out the Braille labels. Several said they were happy to be able to
read

on their own without the help of a friend or employee.

"Having things labeled will be helpful,'' said Kim Charlson as she roamed
the store's aisles with her seeing eye-dog, Dolly, a small German shepherd.
Charlson

said that she often has to ask for help at the Newtonville store, where she
shops weekly.

She does not, for example, know what is behind the deli counter unless she
asks. And with produce, "you can touch it and feel it, but you are not
always

sure. Who knew there are 14 different kinds of peppers? Knowing the
specifics is not something I can do right now.''

The rectangular Braille labels are about the size of a Band-Aid strip. For
now, the Newtonville store is only putting them in the produce section, and
so far they provide limited information. They do not, for example, list
prices or much detail beyond the name or a basic description. However some
labels, such as those for leeks and spinach, will distinguish between
organic and nonorganic produce.

"We are designing as we go,'' said Terri Petrunyak, marketing and community
relations leader for Whole Foods in Newtonville.

The store is working with the Perkins School and the Carroll Center to help
spread the word about what is in Braille and what isn't at the store to
potential customers.

She said the chain is considering what other stores could be part of the
program, but there is not a timeline yet. The company is also looking into
creating

a map of the store in Braille.

The Thousand Oaks Whole Foods store's produce section features small
rectangular chalkboards that include Braille labels.

Frozen foods and dairy areas also have Braille stickers on doors and cases
that tell shoppers, for example, where the milk section begins and ends.
Store employees' name tags are in Braille.

Advocates for the visually impaired said the labels help give people a sense
of independence.

"It's great accessibility for the blind,'' said Joseph Abely, president of
the Carroll Center. "It allows them to lead independent lives.''

Johnny Diaz can be reached at

jodiaz at globe.com<mailto:jodiaz at globe.com>.

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