Carluccio’s has become the first restaurant group to join a new app that aims to revolutionise the dining experience for the visually impaired.
The Good Food Talks app allows the UK’s 1.5 million visually impaired people to access restaurant menus independently, quickly and easily in restaurants or at home.
Using location-tracking technology, the app works by displaying the users’ nearest dining outlets that have signed up to the scheme. Users can then choose to access the menu in whichever format is most convenient to their needs.
The app has been optimised for accessibility functions on all smartphones currently on the market. These functions include text-to-speech software (VoiceOver on the iPhone), a colour inversion option, and different ways to control the size of the print and the brightness of the screen.
The frustration of needing menus read aloud
Founder Matt Wadsworth, who is registered blind, developed the Good Food Talks app after his own research showed that most visually impaired people shared his frustration at needing to have menus read out loud to them by dining companions and restaurant staff. Whilst some restaurants offer Braille menus, this is not a complete solution since only 1% of people in this category in the UK can actually read Braille.
Good Food Talks does all the work
Simon Kossoff, CEO Carluccio’s, comments: “I think Good Food Talks is absolutely brilliant – it’s not every day you see something like this. We know lots of guests struggle to read restaurant menus and we’ve often wondered what to do about it. Apart from the value Good Food Talks brings to our business, what makes signing up an absolute no brainer is the fact that they do all of the work for us. All we do is email them a copy of our menus and they take care of the rest, including updates. We are delighted to be a founder member of Good Food Talks.”
How it works
Matt explains how it works: “Imagine a group of four people in a restaurant. One is blind; one can still basically see but has some trouble reading; one forgot her reading glasses; and one has no trouble reading the menu.
“That fourth person, who would normally have to read the menu to the other three, simply opens the menu and browses. The other three get out their phones, go to goodfoodtalks.com, and click “find restaurants near me”. With location tracking enabled on their phones, the restaurant will appear at the top of the list. Once they’ve clicked on that, they’ll be able to read the menu in whatever way suits them best.
“The blind person uses the VoiceOver function, which reads text out loud; the person with some degeneration uses the Invert Colors function, which changes the print from black on white to the more readable white on black; and the one who forgot her reading glasses simply uses the Zoom function to make the print bigger with the backlit screen giving her all the light she needs.
“Everyone at the table is equal and autonomous, making dining out more dignified, more sociable, and more fun.”
Good Food Talks is simply downloaded from your web browser and is compatible with all smartphone devices. The app has future plans to integrate with restaurants sites such as TopTable, Urban Spoon, FourSquare, Zagat and Yelp.