Restaurant menus that are easily accessible

By JP0030, 23 January, 2014

Forum
iOS and iPadOS
Hello, My name is John, and I have a brother and sister who both suffer from RP. I have come to find that it is very challenging when we go out to eat, to find a restaurant that provides menus in braille. We have searched high and low for a solid mobile app that contains menus for casual dining restaurant chains that works perfectly with the accessibility. We could not find one. Any suggestions?

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Comments

By Siobhan on Saturday, February 8, 2014 - 17:51

Hi John. How cool it is, you're trying to help your brother and sister, welcome. I'm not sure where you're located but let me give you a hand. National chains, Applebees, chilis, tgi Fridays, etc, all have Braille menus. ask for them, if you're lucky, someone might have a clue and bring it to you. The problem with them is they aren't obviously up to date most of the time. You can ask the waiter or waitress to see if the chef will make that they want, or, if the waitress will help. Second, a bigger thing i've done is to google the restaurant. I'll do that to try and get a menu. but in all honesty, there's nothing wrong with asking the waiter to read a selection say, chicken. I realize this isn't exactly what you all need, but it's a start. If I remember, tere was one called menu pages that seemed to work well, but I don't remember if it was a United states ap, or not. I hope some of this helps. and, John, if you want i'd be glad to help find menus and email them to you or anything, to make your experiences easier. Have a good one, Siobhan

First there is a app called all access logo launcher this app allows you to scan logos to access menus deals directions and more.

By Tree on Saturday, February 8, 2014 - 17:51

As someone has already said just googleing the web sight of where you plan to dine is often the best way, especially since such menus should be up to date. One app I use a pretty good bit for menus is blind square. This app is mainly for GPS functions, but it also has menus for most restaurants in my experience. Plus it has amazing search capabilities. It always seems to find things, even when other apps can not and it can also search by location, so if you are sitting at a restaurant and pull up the nearby places it should be on the top of the list. Just like Braille menus the menus of blind square can be not quite up to date at times, but they have become my go to choice. I'm sure if you look through this web sight you might find other options.

Hi. Just wanted to say thanks to Tree for pretty much backing me up. It's nice when commenters actually help after I respond. Anyway isn't blind square something like twenty bucks in the U.s. App Store? Personally i've not felt theneed to go buy it, but that's my choice. I still think googling is the best way. John, could you comment on what we've posted so we know how to help from here? :)

By Samuel J on Saturday, February 8, 2014 - 17:51

The app that I use for looking up menus is called, AllMenus (no space between the two words). It is free, and quite accessible with Voiceover. It provides menus based on your geographical location, cuisines etc. It provides a listing of the items on the menu for a particular restaurant, and for most menus, even has a description for each item on the menu. Sometimes, prices are listed too, but that isn't always the case. All in all though, I have found this app to be quite useful and it gets the job done. Hope this helps.

In addition to the advice given by Siobhan and Tree of doing an Internet search, increasingly, restaurant menu information is being made avaiable through common iOS apps that let you search for general points of interest, such as Where To?  This app contains links to menus, if they are easily available, and/or web pages for many restaurants (and other businesses and institutions). It also works internationally, and has support for multiple languages.  For example, since the original poster's profile shows him as being from Detroit, Michigan, I tried typing "Detroit, Michigan" into the search field and ran a search on "Food & Drink", selecting "Any Restaurant" for the category. This gave me a list of results ordered by distance from the location assigned to "Detroit, Michigan" (where I could have typed in a specific address, or selected and address entry from my address book contacts instead to use for the search location in someplace other than my current location).  

The list of restaurants is announced with distance and direction, along with full address information (if I want to wait to hear it instead of flicking to the next entry), and ratings where available -- from entries like "Domino's Pizza,  behind you, 100 feet", and "Subway", which seems to be in the same location,  to "Bangkok Crossing, slight left, 100 yards" which has 4-stars, based on 12 ratings, to "Foran's Irish Pub, slight left, 120 yards" which is another 4-star restaurant based on 40 ratings, to "Fountain Bistro, slight right 120 yards" -- another 4-star restaurant based on 20 ratings, to "Lunchtime Global, left 120 yards", which is a 5-star restaurant based on 5 ratings.  The entries for "Domino's Pizza" and "Subway" (several more interspersed in the list) have entries for "Main menu", which I can read through to find descriptions of their Artisan Pizzas, American Legend Pizzas, Feast Pizzas,  Sandwiches, etc. Subway's "Main Menu" entry is more spartan -- just a list of the different sandwiches. The 4-star Bangkok Crossing restaurant doesn't have a "Main Menu" link, but it does have a link to the restaurant home page, which has links with full descriptions of their appetizers, soups and salads, specialties, entrees, etc. On the Where To? details page there's also a link I can click to read the 12 ratings.  For Foran's Irish Pub, there is a Main Menu link I can examine with full menu descriptions and price information. I can also read the reviews that went into the 40 ratings, and both these 4-star restaurants have today's hours.  Similarly, for Fountain Bistro, there is a web home page with links to a full menu, and a link to read the 20 reviews, plus hour information. For Lunchtime Global, the 5-star rated restaurant, there is a web page with link to menus.

Hope this gives you a flavor of how this app works.  It actually has many other features. Such as the live updating of directing and distance to your selection on its details page, as you turn your iPhone and walk.  It also lets you send address information to other navigation apps on your device, such as Navigon, TomTom, MotionX GPS Drive, Apple Maps, Google Maps, and lots of urban public transit apps like HopStop (which you can't do with BlindSquare -- which I also use).  You can even select addresses directly from your contacts in this app and send them to other navigation routing apps.  And you can use this internationally.  List price is $2.99, and it has often gone o sale for $0.99.  Where To? - Discover your next GPS destination by FutureTap.

Hope this helps.

Esther

 

 

 

 

By Ali Gamez on Saturday, February 8, 2014 - 17:51

Hello I know you mean apps, but here is a very good website if you are in the states that is accessible with JAWS and other screen readers. http://www.allmenus.com/