Tired of being thwarted in your quest for a dignified meal in a restaurant because you can’t read the damned menu? Well, the LightHouse of the North Coast wants you to know that it has teamed up with the Humboldt Council of the Blind and other groups to provide free Braille and large-print menus to three restaurants: Northwoods Restaurant in Crescent City and the Lost Coast Brewery and Sea Grill in Eureka. Normally you gotta pay for this stuff.
The LightHouse plans to deliver 10 menus to the Lost Coast Brewery tomorrow, Friday, at 4:30 p.m.
This article appears in After You’re Dead.
I don’t think you have ever had to pay for the braille menus.
Used to be the local Braille Group had to do each one individually. If 5 people needed a menu, or a book, they had to redo it. Only in recent years have they gotten computerized with a special braille printer, and can now issue multiple copies easily.
It’s a great service.
Hm, it sounded like you did have to pay, just going from the news release (which I tried to link to yesterday but didn’t succeed, sorry about that):
Braille/Large Print Menus Land at Lost Coast Brewery April 18th
Eureka, CA – LightHouse of the North Coast will present a set of ten menus printed in Braille and large print to Lost Coast Brewery restaurant April 18th at 4:30 p.m.. Members of the Humboldt Council of the Blind will be on hand to check out the new accessible menus.
LightHouse typically receives a fee for providing information in audio, Braille and large print formats. However, as a gesture of good will the LightHouse enlisted the assistance of the Humboldt Council of the Blind and local low vision support groups in choosing three restaurants to receive free menus. Northwoods Restaurant in Crescent City, Lost Coast Brewery and The Sea Grill were chosen to receive complimentary menus.
The LightHouse of the North Coast, a satellite office of LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired in San Francisco, serves over 200 visually impaired community members in Del Norte and Humboldt Counties each year. For information call (707) 268-5646 or e-mail northcoastinfo@lighthouse-sf.org. For details about how an individual or organization can provide information in accessible formats contact Greeta Ahart with the LightHouse in San Francisco at (415) 431-1481 x 358, e-mail: gahart@lighthouse-sf.org or visit http://www.lighthouse-sf.org.
LightHouse Contact: Kathleen Adkins Lost Coast Brewery:
(707) 498-1888 or kpadkins@suddenlink.net Joyce Hill (707) 445-4480
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Rose, Heidi, my impression is that Braille Transcribers of Humboldt has no shortage of projects. They do a lot of work for the American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults transcribing to create Twin Vision books for children (books that contain Braille on one side and ink printing on the other).
Would the local group make restaurant menus for free? Probably yes, but it’s likely not their first priority.
Would the nonprofit LightHouse of the North Coast love to be paid a nominal fee for the service of creating menus for every restaurant in the county? My guess is yes.
This information comes by way of Doug Rose at the Humboldt Council of the Blind. You can reach the Council’s info line at 839-7266.
Incidentally, the Council’s annual meeting is tomorrow, Friday, April 18 at 2:30 p.m. at the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District office at 828 Seventh St. in Eureka. The meeting should be brief, with everyone retiring to the Lost Coast Brewery well before 4:30 p.m. For anyone interested, it’s a good opportunity to stop by and get to know folks.
11:31 —
1). We’re not a family paper, but …
2). That’s disgusting. Get your mind out of the gutter.
Yes AJ, they do it for free, and have for years. For local restaurants whenever they ask. They also do textbooks for students across the country and novels… My Mom is a braille transcriber. It’s a small group and they can always use new volunteers. They’ll train you, and set you up with the necessary equipment.
I’m pretty sure about that, I’ve never heard any mention of a fee. I’ll call and double check for ya, though.
That sounds like a key difference… waiting for restaurants to ask versus approaching restaurants with the offer. How often is it that a restaurateur has the presence of mind to seek out someone to create a Braille menu?
I wouldn’t mind being a Braille transcriber… after my newborn and 3-year-old grow up and my blogging days are over.
How old would you estimate a child would need to be to use the equipment, perhaps translating children’s books?
My kids learned to do it, a few phrases anyway. The thing is you have to proof everything, and I don’t just mean what kids do. The transcribers have to proof everything that goes out, it has to be a correct product. They used to have to redo things if there was a typo. The new software has made everything better. Kids love it, though, for a while anyway. Short kid books, yeah, they could do it.
There are at least a few restaurants around here that have asked. I’m not sure how many.
Sure, I was thinking in terms of a volunteer project that a parent and child can do together. The child produces a page, then the parent proofs it. Whether that’s feasible given the equipment or software to do side-by-side may be another issue.
The software is available, but they only have the one printer as far as I know – that prints in Braille.
It would be really good for some young people to get involved.
Do high schools still teach typing (“keyboarding”) classes? Maybe each student could type up one children’s book per quarter/semester and be responsible for proofing three other transcriptions. Create a point system (negative for making mistakes, positive for finding them) with an end-of-course incentive.
I’m assuming transcribers are just retyping the words found in books, and the software/printer setup handles the Braille conversion. Yes?
Whaa? My end parenthesis was converted to a smiley face. Poor software detection of emoticons. Tsk. Tsk.
Well, the Braille transcribers have both – an old style Braille machine which creates the Braille pages as you type. Those are the pages that would have to be redone if you made a mistake, so accuracy in spelling and punctuation was especially important.
Now they have the software program, and I think you are right, they just transcribe the pages.
A text recognition software program would probably be helpful, maybe speed things up, but the accuracy of that software might not be up to par – I don’t know.
The need is great – the local group transcribes for people all over, I know some things get shipped to people on the east coast.
The high school – and the junior highs all teach keyboarding. And IM-ing really speeds up kid’s typing speeds (though kills the accuracy!) 🙂
The local group does not charge for the transcribing. It is all volunteer. They do charge for the paper when they do work for companies. The library provides the paper for the books they do locally. They’ve done textbooks for a couple of school districts who provide a donation…
They Braille the KEET programs for up to 5 people at times, They Brailled for Harvey Jossem who is mentioned in the Journal article – instructions for his electronic gadgets among other things. They said he was an amazing guy.
Right now they have about 9 members.
The software they use actually IS typed in Braille, because they all like that. There is a program that does allow you to type in English.
The name of the local group Braille Transcribers of Humboldt.