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?
Comments
Some tips that might help
restaurant menus
Blind square and google
Thanks so much tree
ALLMenus
Also try apps like Where To?
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
Accessible Menus
Thanks for all of your help