Meeting the customer service standard: restaurant menus

All businesses with at least one employee will have to comply with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) Customer Service Standard  taking effect January 1, 2012.

Restaurants need to have a policy on allowing people to use their own assistive devices to access your goods and services, and that includes your menu or menu board hung high on the wall.  Some restaurants might have Braille and large print menus, but what if your potential customer can’t read either?
 A MENU also has a number of different options:

• Regular and large print, black text on a white background
• Regular and large print (high contrast), white text on a black background
• Off-white for those with Dyslexia
• Mobile versions of regular and high contrast

All of a sudden, your menu has become accessible to a larger market of clients.

Think about the new Integrated Accessibility Standard; the Communication Strand.  The new standard isn’t designed to turn business upside down, just do things differently to accommodate, in the end we all benefit

What do you think an accessible menu should will look like?  Will it be helpful? 

If you are interested in learning more about Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) or how to make accessibility a natural part of your business through the application of Corporate Social Responsibility, please contact Sandra Broekhof @ 416-579-1035 or sandra_broekhof@sympatico.ca or visit www.accessibilitycompliance.ca