Kevin Shaw

Build. Lead. Inspire.

Accessibility

If Screen Readers Were Airlines

by

Based on an old Internet post from 1995 comparing operating systems to airlines, I revived the analogy to screen readers.

 

JAWS Air

 When you get to the airport, you’re given extra bags to bring with you whether you want them or not. The planes are old, clunky and way bigger than last year’s planes, but at least there’s leg room. You can fly to all of the popular spots, but by bringing your own avionics engineer, you can   get your plane to fly almost anywhere. 
You’re constantly told that turbulence and crashing into the ground in a giant fireball can be avoided if you fly a plane with a faster engine.

Instead of windows, passengers look at screens that show the outside world

 

Window-Eyes Air

Just like JAWS Air, however you must board the plane from the rear. All of the seats face backward. Everyone who flew with them fondly reminisces about how much better Window-eyes Air is when compared to JAWS Air.

 

NVDA Airlines:

A few passengers who were fed up with JAWS Air decide to start their own airline. The planes look like JaWS planes, only smaller. Passengers are generally treated well and the planes fly to lots of great places. The only catch is that it’s recommended you bring your own flight attendant as the one provided has their jaw wired shut after a brawl in the JAWS Air lounge.

After a quick tutorial, yOu install your own flight attendant and the flight is very efficient and comfortable. When you tell your friends about your  great NVDA airlines experience, they ask “You have to do what with the flight attendant?”

 

Narrator Airlines

You see the planes all the time, but don’t know anyone who has flown on one for longer than an hour.
When a JAWS Air plane stalls, you parachute out of your plane, run to the nearest airport, hop on  Narrator Airlines, circle the airport and wait until you see a JAWS Air plane appear on the runway.

 

VoiceOver Airways

The futuristic, spaceship-like  planes are everywhere. Unlike JAWS or NVDA Airlines, VoiceOver Airways flies out of a totally separate, sleek, state-of-the-art airport. The all white planes fly to tons of destinations, but each one must build special all white runways and terminals for VoiceOver Airways planes.
Check-in, boarding, flying, disembarking and baggage claim all go effortlessly and the flight is smooth and comfortable. the in-flight meal is tasty, the flight attendants are all very friendly and the entertainment system is out of this world. You find yourself relaxing and enjoying your flight. For no reason whatsoever, your plane explodes mid-flight. As you fall towards the ground, another airplane suddenly materializes around you and you continue flying as if nothing happened.

 

Talkback Airlines

Passengers run onto the runway, form a giant square around the plane and then hop on. For some reason, the plane flies straight, then right, straight then right until you reach your destination.

 

System access Airlines

Passengers push the airplane, hop on and fly until the airplane stops. They all get out, push the plane again and repeat the process until they get to their destination.

 

ChromeVox Airlines

Like narrator Airlines, you don’t know anyone who has flown with them, but their TV advertising looks cool. The flight attendants all seem very nice, but they ask lots of prying questions about your personal life. While your flight is okay, you can’t help but feel as if you’re being stared at.

Career Trek: Mind Your Own Business

by

History and concept

During my time working for CNIB as the program manager for entrepreneurship and innovation, I was approached by Accessible Media Inc.. This is a national cable broadcaster in Canada with mandatory carriage on both cable and satellite. AMI TV carries TV shows, movies and original programming with both captioning and described video.

 

AMI asked me whether I’d be interested in hosting a show focused on entrepreneurs with disabilities. I said yes and then, as is typical in television production, nothing happened. In the fall of 2021, I finally got the call that I’d been matched with a production company to produce a pilot episode. This is an episode that often never makes it to air, but gives the network an overall idea of the structure , tone and look of the show. AMI approved the pilot and we began production on season 1. 

 

The concept of the show is quite simple; entrepreneurs with disabilities share their story along with a particular business challenge they’re facing. A panel of mentors advises the entrepreneur and we then follow up to see whether they have taken on the challenge. 

 

We began shooting in early 2022 with 8 entrepreneurs from a wide variety of backgrounds and in every stage of business. Along with hosting, I played a role in casting, writing and structuring the show. My cohost, Purdeep Sangha, shot the follow-up episodes with each entrepreneur. After months of shooting and editing, season 1 went on the air in the summer of 2022 and received positive reviews.

 

The show was renewed for a second season in 2023 and a third season in the same year. Season 4 is scheduled to air in the fall of 2024 on  AMI TV.

 

How I Adapted

I have a background in radio and television production having attended Toronto Metropolitan University and working at CHRY for nearly 8 years, so working in front of TV cameras was not a big adjustment for me. The hardest part of live-to-tape production is knowing your script lines and waiting around for the technical aspects of the production to be taken care of. Our production company has been fantastic to work with and I’ve had the privilege of working with top-tier makeup artists, sound technicians and directors who are all consummate professionals.

I memorized many of my opening and closing scripts, something challenging even for sighted actors to do for 8 episodes at a time. It’s a good idea to use the down time on set to work on your scripts, your vocal warm-ups and your delivery.

 

You can watch this season and prior seasons of Mind Your Own Business on the AMI website and through the fully accessible AMI TV app for both iPhone and Android.

 

Kevin on the Set of Mind Your Own Business in front of a logo for the show.

Career Trek: Digital Accessibility

by Leave a Comment

Digital accessibility touched my life soon after I lost the low vision I’d been using since birth.

I learned JAWS for Windows rather quickly after switching from a Mac to using a Windows-based PC full time. I could use the productivity apps that mattered for university—Word, Excel, e-mail, web-browsing and a calendar.

The real accessibility struggle started when I tried using JAWS with Software Audio Workshop Plus (SAW)—a PC-based multitrack audio editor we used at university. SAW was far from accessible as its controls were not seen by JAWS in its off-screen model (a database of all of the on-screen elements such as buttons and text fields).

JAWS had a powerful scripting language built into it. I attempted teaching myself how to script JAWS to work with SAW, but my high school level programming knowledge made this much more difficult. I did however learn about window classes, control types and functions—all useful building blocks to understanding digital accessibilitY. 

 

Accessibility for  Protools

After using JAWS to successfully start my radio career at CHRY, I went back to Ryerson to focus on digital accessibility in a Master of Arts program for media production. At the time, the coveted holy grail of accessibility in the sight loss community was ProTools—a Mac-based digital audio workstation (DAW)—the gold medal industry standard for working in audio production.

In late 2009, ProTools was totally unusable by a screen reader user with the only accessible buttons being Close, Minimize and Zoom. Blind audio engineer Slau Halatyn started “the ProTools Petition” which received over 1200 signatures. Slau  presented this to Avid on behalf of blind engineers, educators and enthusiasts around the world who saw ProTools as an  equalizer that could give blind people employment opportunities in the audio and music industries.

I was one of the first to test the new accessible ProTools in an academic setting. My thesis—VoiceOver in the Control Room: Usability of ProTools recording software by the blind using a screen reader—focused on examining whether a blind engineer could completely use the program in its entirety without sighted assistance to not only produce audio, but produce something of major label quality that would stand up against a modern pop or rock recording.

My thesis involved recording, editing and mixing a five-piece Toronto rock band, all while keeping notes on the accessibility of each of the main activities within ProTools. During my thesis, I learned even more about accessibility and usability as a whole as well as user experience and software design. 

 

Accessibility for  VOD

After leaving school, I had a sneaking suspicion my future was going to involve digital accessibility a fair bit. I took another basic programming course through iTunes U and picked up even more fundamentals of how computer programs were constructed from the ground up. This gave me enough knowledge to venture into the startup world where I could speak to the accessibility of video-on-demand (VOD) platforms like the one I was building. Building TellMe TV required me to communicate the ideas about accessibility to engineers. Through this process, I developed more familiarity  with concepts like HTML 5, ARIA, mobile accessibility and the world of accessible media players.

 

My work for TellMe TV got the attention of the Ryerson DMZ. Startups there wanted to know how to make their digital offerings and products accessible to the widest variety of users. This led me to develop a TEDx Talk called Design the Inclusive experience which I delivered for Ryerson in 2014 at the Royal Ontario Museum.

 

 

Accessibility for Ontario

My unique knowledge and experience caught the attention of the  Government of Ontario. In 2016, I was invited to sit on a committee to review the information and communications standards for the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA). This is legislation enacted in 2005 that mandated a fully accessible Ontario by 2025 in key sectors such as customer service, information, communications and education. Standards written in the early 2000s hadn’t caught up with the explosion of mobile technology as well as new types of information systems that were now on the market such as touch-screen kiosks, SMART devices such as thermostats and innovations in web technology. After much consultation and debate, we agreed to an updated standard in 2018. 

Amidst all of this, I was being tapped to review the accessibility of websites, mobile apps and other digital products by various companies, usually after I complained about not being able to use their service. Some of the changes I requested made their way into business planning software, a popular dating site and a local cable provider’s set-top box.

By the time TellMe TV and my work with the Government of Ontario was winding down, I joined CNIB and found myself wearing my accessibility advocacy hat once again as we built Venture Zone Game and CNIB Market. I was also taking an accessibility-first approach to building MenuVox—my latest startup.

 

Accessible Education

My latest accessibility work has been with Edsby—a K-12 learning platform. Edsby needed help in ensuring its web-based app was accessible to students, parents and teachers. Much of this work involved testing and reporting on the operability and perception of web components such as radio buttons, text fields and links. Often, the fixes involved simple changes to making web code more robust. I took a task-based approach to Edsby, mapping out the user journey through various activities and ensuring users could interact with the necessary components along the way. This culminated in a demo video Edsby has running on their site—showing off the accessibility of the platform.

 

Developing My Skill

Today, I work as the digital accessibility lead at Tangerine—one of Canada’s leading digital banks. I work with designers, developers, business analysts and other accessibility professionals to ensure the Tangerine app and website are fully accessible. A part of this work involves improving my knowledge about digital accessibility. Since starting at Tangerine, I’ve enrolled in the excellent digital accessibility courses from Deque (pronounced ‘Dq’) University. I am steadily working towards a certified professional accessibility core competency (CPACC) designation, having completed 3 exams and nearly 3 dozen courses in everything from document accessibility to customer service for people with disabilities. After this, the goal is to receive a designation as an international accessibility professional.

 

How I Adapted

Not every screen reader user can be an accessibility expert. Most screen reader users use their assistive tech to accomplish some other goal such as writing documents or tracking expenses in a spreadsheet. Others, like myself, want to know how the machine works and how we can make better software usable by more people. 

I learned the basics of programming in languages like Python, Java and Swift and understand how the building blocks of programs such as variables, arrays, strings, objects, functions, libraries and so on, fit together to make an application. In addition, I learned the fundamentals of how HTML works as well as how to speak to engineers about the type of behaviour I want specific websites to exhibit.

I also became familiar with the role accessibility plays in agile methodology. This is how most programming shops are set up today. Accessibility is best when it is thought of in the concept and design stage of a program or feature, not bolted on at the end to appease a tiny customer segment and avoid a law suit.

One of the most important things I did was become familiar with my assistive technology. Today’s off-the-shelf software builders often include accessibility as part of their packages, but it’s up to the screen reader user to know how to use this powerful tool at their fingertips. In addition to navigating efficiently and quickly with VoiceOver, I learned how to use its additional features such as hotspots, web spots, activities and custom gestures. In the case of desktop software, I made a point to teach myself the keyboard shortcuts in each program so I spent less time hunting around the screen and more time getting work done.

Career Trek: TellMe TV

by Leave a Comment

Entrepreneurs Solve Problems

I was once asked, “How do you become an entrepreneur?” My quick response was, “Find something that irritates you so much, you are left with no choice but to solve the problem yourself.”

 

Several months  after completing my Master of Arts in Media Production in 2011, I found myself waiting for the next big career move to find me. I was still working at CHRY Radio and unsure on what to do with the rest of my life. 

One of the many amusing conversations among the staff at CHRY had me feeling a bit left out. We were all discussing movies and TV shows we were watching and I was clueless when it came to new  shows and classics I’d missed out on after losing my sight. I was determined to catch up by finding as many movies and TV with audio description as I could. 

 

Audio description (or described video (DV) as it is known in Canada) is narration of on-screen activity in between lines of dialog in a movie or TV show. It enables someone with sight loss to get the jokes in a comedy or emote with the story in  a drama. I demonstrated how audio description worked in a TEDx Talk for Ryerson in November of 2014.

 

I had a shelf full of DVDs at home—many of which were still in shrink wrap. Some of them had audio description tracks on them, but I didn’t feel like navigating a series of silent menus to locate and play the audio description soundtrack. I went online thinking, “Surely one of the big online VOD platforms had movies or TV shows with audio description!” I found none.

 

And that’s when the idea struck me like lightning—build a Netflix for the blind.

 

I immediately began typing furious notes as to how I’d accomplish this goal. I couldn’t code well, didn’t know anyone in software or the film & TV industries and I had no clue where to begin. Just like learning to DJ or jumping into audio production, I made the decision to just dive in and start. I asked questions and worked through the contacts I had.

Within six months, I had a working prototype and a name, Zagga Entertainment. I wasn’t sold on the name, but I wanted something with a Z in it and zagga.tv was the first domain I could get. Zagga was slated to be the first fully accessible subscription VOD service of its kind with audio description on all of its movie and TV titles.

 

The Pitches

With a functional prototype and some of my own cash, I took the idea to CNIB—Canada’s national blindness charity whose CEO loved the idea and pledged his support right away. I was also accepted to what was then known as the Ryerson Digital media Zone—a university-based startup incubator. In September of 2013, I decided to jump in with both feet. I left CHRY and pursued Zagga full time.

 

Kevin sits on a sofa at the DMZ with his laptop

 

The Easy Part

Since I Used a screen reader full time, I knew how I wanted the website, and eventually a mobile app, to behave. I quickly learned our accessible prototype wouldn’t cut it when it came to handling the security requirements of the content providers. More on them later. After a crowdfunding campaign, we built the first  full version of Zagga running on the web and an iPad app before financial setbacks forced us to abandon those platforms for a mobile-ready website. We ran this for several months before receiving some help out of the Blu. (Pun intended.)

Blu Focus handled the quality assurance for Hollywood DVDs and digital assets. Its founder, Paulette, got in touch with me and offered me a fully turnkey VOD solution that solved all of our problems for handling security, scalability and accessibility. We changed the company name to TellMe TV and built the next version of the app on the robust VHX platform which was the best thing that ever happened to us. Thanks to Paulette, we launched in 2016 with a few dozen titles including rare content from the National Film Board of Canada, The Film Detective and Entertainment One. 

 

TellMe TV Video

We worked with Kent Parker, a great commercial producer out of Toronto, to create a video explaining TellMe TV Credits to Jeevan, her guide dog Kizzy and our excellent voice talent Susan for bringing this piece together.

 

 

 

The Hard Part

In the world of film and TV, content is king. Much like location, location, location for brick and mortar retail, content, content, content should be the motto for anyone looking to start a subscription VOD service. This one issue hamstrung us, especially as the market began to mature around us with audio description soon being offered on Netflix, iTunes and other VOD services when we launched.

 

Our customers in the sight loss community wanted top tier Hollywood content with audio description. They, like me, wanted to be included in the water cooler talk about hit movies and TV shows from the past and present. The content providers which included major studios in Hollywood, wanted their pound of flesh on behalf of the directors, writers, actors and other people who had a financial interest in the success of their films and TV shows. For a large universe of titles, the costs began adding up quickly. I was soon stuck with a dilemma: subscribers weren’t coming because we had no content and we couldn’t get the content we wanted because we didn’t have the subscribers.

 

The Hardest Part

With the  market rapidly maturing around us and with our cash running out, I had to make the tough call to pull the plug on TellMe TV in 2018. Calling it quits on a dream is sometimes the hardest thing an entrepreneur will ever have to do, but I have learned quite a bit by taking on the challenge of starting up my own company and blazing a trail into unknown territory. 

 

Lessons for the Entrepreneur

 

Share Your Idea; No One’s Going to Steal It.

You’re the one who was irritated enough to find the solution to the problem. You spent late nights jotting down notes, trying out solutions and pounding away at your code until you found something that worked. Chances are no one else is going to put in the time and effort you have to get to where you are. Attract others to your ideas and they will want to help you succeed.

 

Launch Early

Yes, your product is held together with a shoelace, some duct tape and a safety pin, but someone out there sees the same problem you do and will pay you for that solution. You can refine and iterate, but you shouldn’t wait until everything is perfect for launch, because it never will be.

 

You Don’t Have to Get It Right. You Need to Get It Done.

In my head, I pictured the launch of TellMe TV being a lot like the launch of the iPhone. The service would gleam as I showed off its features to an audience that would ooh and aah over all of the details. Much like my first point, you can’t get it perfect on the first try, but you have to show something for your efforts, especially when investors are waiting to see what you’ve been doing with their cash.

 

Find Your Customers, Then Listen To Them.

As much as you know about your product, your customer may have an insight that simplifies or improves your product in ways you can’t see because of your perspective. 

 

Build A Stellar Team

The vision of TellMe TV attracted several key people to my team including the former CEO of Lion’s Gate Entertainment, a two-time Emmy Award winner and the lady who launched the xbox in Canada.

 

Develop Tough Skin

Conflict, confrontation and hearing the word ‘no’ come with the territory. Learn to lick your emotional wounds quickly and move forward with the mission.

 

Fail Fast

You will fail. Your code will break. You will introduce a feature and realize it was a bonehead decision. You will hire the wrong person. Cut your losses and move forward.

 

Never Give Up

While I had to make the hard decision to wind down TellMe TV, it came after seven years of hard work. There were some days I felt like giving up and many where I wondered if I would have been safer, happier and more satisfied working in audio. Even when the going gets rough, remember all you need to do is take one step forward.

 

Something from Nothing

If I had to choose one regret from my journey with TellMe TV, it would be not launching faster with the content I could easily get. In some ways it would have been easier to build a loyal audience with customers who believed in the vision, but after a couple of years of promising vapourware, it’s hard to build trust and loyalty when the market movers are offering your service as a feature. Aside from that, I regret nothing. I learned a lot, especially about the world of business, accessibility and the often colourful world of tech startups.

By the time I wound down TellMe TV, I had been invited to join CNIB in building a national entrepreneurship program for other Canadians with sight loss. It was an opportunity to build something from nothing all over again and I couldn’t say no to the prospect.

Career Trek – The Mobile DJ Years

by Leave a Comment

This is the first post in a series that will take you on a journey through the highlights of my working life. I have essentially worked my entire career without sight. A lot of that work was work I chose to do when no other companies would hire me after I graduated what was then called Ryerson University with a Bachelor of Applied Arts in Radio & Television Arts. Throughout my journey as an entrepreneur and as an employee with sight loss, I’ve had to solve problems in order to get the job done. I’ll explain how I did it as best I can.

Jump In and Figure it Out

I’ve always loved listening to the artful skill of a mix DJ at work. Listening to radio in Toronto while growing up, I was transfixed by DJs who could beat match, cut and scratch music from a wide variety of musical genres. I had a desire to learn, but figured the startup costs were too prohibitive for me to own turntables, a mixer, speakers and then amass a collection of vinyl LPs.

 

While attending university, my friend Rebecca introduced me to a popular night club DJ—DJ Thomas—who spun music for a Saturday night retro broadcast on a popular Toronto radio station. He used the denon unit week after week and pulled off flawless mixes from a giant case of CDs he traveled with for his DJ gigs. While in conversation with DJ Thomas and Rebecca, I mentioned that DJing was something I wanted to learn.

At the time, there were no courses or schools where you could go to learn to be a DJ. Everyone just “figured it out” on their own.

Rebecca told me to just jump right in and teach myself. I did just that. Thanks Rebecca!

DJ Thomas showed me his rig which held one of the first Denon twin CD decks built for DJs. The unit let DJS play CDs at variable speeds and precisely cue songs using CD frames. This made tempo synchronization and cuing as easy as it was on vinyl.

 

After finishing my first year of university, I rented one of the  Denon decks without a mixer. I learned to mix by connecting each CD player in the Denon to separate stereo systems and working the volume controls independently. My crude bedroom set-up was clunky and awkward, but I had enough to teach myself how to work the unit and get familiar with the controls as well as the tiny collection of CDs I owned. In under a month, I was spinning at my best friend’s 21st birthday party—my very first gig.

 

Kevin stands in front of a mixer and rack of DJ equipment at a party.

 

How I Adapted

Learning the controls on the Denon decks was not that difficult. There were few buttons and each one was sized and positioned in a way where I could memorize what each key did and where it was, so no need for braille labels.

One of the most challenging parts of being a DJ with no sight was selecting CDs. I had a standing rack of 200 CDs, plus 3 or 4 road cases holding many more. Labeling each one with braille was impractical, so I began memorizing the layout of each rack and case using cues from the spines of each case to guide me on which CDs were where. For example, an album in a cardboard digipack would break up the column of CDs and give me an anchor to chunk the order of CDs above and below.

Every so often, I’d grab the wrong CD during a gig, but have enough time to put it back and grab the correct one before the playing track ended.

After several gigs and some saving, I purchased an upgraded Denon deck with jog and shuttle controls along with a very simple DJ mixer. Friends would accompany me to gigs with a cash incentive. I saved money in the long term by renting the PA and lighting gear I needed for each gig. This allowed me to customize each event with the right gear so I wasn’t keeping massive speakers in my inventory if I was playing a small wedding for 50 people.

I spun weddings, first communions, fundraisers and a couple of night club gigs. Over the 7 years I worked as a DJ, the biggest gig I did was for 300 people for my best friend’s parents’ 25th wedding anniversary. I had also amassed a large collection of music and learned a few lessons along the way. 

Lessons Learned

  • Be prepared for everything. Have a backup for your main DJ rig and be prepared to switch immediately to keep the party going.
  • Know your music. Be familiar with your bar counts, in and out points and be prepared to mix disparate genres such as cultural music, rock and reggae. This is what sets you apart and develops your versatility.
  • Know your tools. You should be an expert on how to set up and operate your gear and know every button and function. On the flip side, keep your tech load simple. Sometimes beat matching from song to song is more than adequate without adding a sampler, stutter effects and scratching.
  • Practice and make your mistakes at home. When you’re driving a party at a wedding or night club, there are no redos for a poor mix, so be sure you know what you’re doing when the dance floor is open.
  • Know your audience. Scratching and cutting means nothing if you can’t choose the right song to play. A fundraiser for executives in their 50s is going to be a very different mix than a high school dance, so play to your audience. Your personal tastes come second. 
  • Carry yourself professionally. Use business and rate cards. Be clear with your contracts. Arrive on time for set-up. leave on time after strike. Clean up after yourself. Return calls and e-mails promptly.
  • Perceptions matter. As a DJ with sight loss, walking into a venue with a cane can elicit non-confidence in people who don’t know you can do the work. Your job is to prove them wrong by exceeding their expectations. Use correct spelling and grammar in your correspondence. Make eye contact, shake hands firmly, be agreeable, apologize when necessary and take the high road if you’re dealing with a jerk. Address people by name and say please and thank you. These little things go a long way in building your reputation when you’re starting out.
  • Build a great team. I succeeded as a DJ because I had great friends around me who were willing to drive me to gigs, set up speakers and tell me when people were leaving the dance floor. No one succeeds alone, so surround yourself with great people who are invested in your success.

I left the DJ world in 2005 after selling my DJ rig. If I do get back into it, it will be an expensive hobby.

Today, a DJ with sight loss can easily get set up with a Mac running VoiceOver, accessible DJ software from Algoriddim and accessible DJ controllers such as the Pioneer DDJ SX3. These tools can put you on par with your sighted counterparts.

If you’re going to venture into the world of being a mobile DJ, have a plan and set goals for performing a certain number of gigs in the first 30, 60 and 90 days. Build good habits for practice and be prepared to make sacrifices with your time. The DJ world can be fun, but it is hard work.

 

My Old School Mix

Here is a set of 80s and 90s old school hip hop and R&B that was fun to mix. The Denon DM2500 had a crude sampler which I used for parts of this mix. Enjoy!

My Current Startup: MenuVox

by

Imagine that you’re like me, and live with sight loss. Picture yourself at the table in a busy cafe or restaurant. How do you read the menu?

You don’t read braille. Your server is too busy to read the menu to you. Your OCR apps aren’t cutting it. Scanning a QR code takes you to an inaccessible photo of the menu and the restaurant’s website is a mess. You feel uncomfortable asking for help and so you get “the special” without knowing your favourite meal is available.

My latest startup, Menuvox, solves these problems with a location-based app and service that pushes an accessible restaurant menu right to a diner’s smart phone. 

I got the idea for MenuVox after I found myself alone in a chain restaurant—trying very hard to navigate the restaurant’s website on my mobile phone. It was a mess. I thought, “there has to be a better way to do this.”

MenuVox solves a number of problems with the dine-in experience for those with and without sight:

  • Eliminates the need for braille menus. Braille is expensive to produce and fewer than 1 in 4 in the sight loss community read braille regularly. 
  • Increases dignity and independence for people with sight loss.
  • Improves hygiene and reduces viral and bacterial transmission. Since the menu is on the user’s phone, no need to share menus or print disposable paper menus.
  • Improves the efficiency of serving staff. Less time spent reading the menu aloud to a customer with sight loss is more time spent serving others.
  • Reduces app clutter. One app works in every location that supports MenuVox. No need for multiple restaurant apps on your phone.

Unlike other apps that focus on delivery, discovery, reviews or reservations, MenuVox is focused on the experience of being at the table. The app lets the  user adjust the display settings of their phone to make the text more legible or have their screen reader read the menu aloud. Since the app is location-based, there’s no need to scan QR codes or scroll through a list of nearby restaurants. MenuVox will even work in underground malls and food courts.

MenuVox is poised to launch in 2022.