Inclusivity is at their fingertips. For this year’s annual gathering of the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), the Sodexo Live! team at the Orange County Convention Center (OCCC) welcomed the group with specially made braille and large-print menus.
To foster inclusivity among guests at this event, a proactive approach on the part of staff was key, according to Warner Peck, Sodexo Live!’s director of sales and marketing at the convention center.
“When groups come in with special needs, it’s a great opportunity to push ourselves a little, and be innovative from the service perspective,” Peck says. “We talked about it, and being inclusive and taking into account people’s needs, you want to be proactive, not reactive and have the lines of communication open.”
Peck, who, earlier in his career, learned the power of “surprise and delight” in hospitality at Disney World, is always looking for ways that the OCCC can do special things that set it apart.
With this in mind, Peck wanted to make the group feel welcome in an unexpected way, and the braille menus seemed like a great, inexpensive way to do so. “There wasn’t an ask for [the braille menus], but it was unique and special.”
A local company printed hundreds of braille versions of four different menus for the event. | Photo courtesy of Sodexo Live!
Peck found a local company to print braille and large-print menus, thinking “it would be a great surprise and delight,” he says. “We want to give them a reason to come back. We want to treat every group special and give them a reason to come back. And the lines of conversation were there. When the NFB executive director found out about it, he was like, ‘Yes, this is great!’”
John Berggren, executive director of operations for the National Federation of the Blind, expressed gratitude, especially for the caring staff who took the time to learn something new.
“The convention center staff expressed a great deal of interest in learning more about the blind community, and understanding who the blind are and how best to serve our members while we’re here at the convention center,” Berggren says. “We’re an advocacy organization and inclusiveness is critical to who we are. So, Sodexo had the forethought to put together a Braille menu—before we asked—and that often is not our experience.”
A total of four menus were printed, with braille descriptions of items like chicken Caesar wraps, Caribbean Craze wraps and more. “If you say ‘Chicken Caesar,’ people know what it is, but what’s in the Ranch Cob, or the Cheese Box? It’s those details where for folks who read braille, this is great,” Peck says, adding that “we have wonderful front-line employees who can verbally explain a menu item, and I’m always about that human interaction, but this way, it made things easier.”
Like every event at the convention center, the team aims to showcase that Orlando’s food scene is so much more than just that place with the famous mouse. “I think people want to be challenged by food when they travel,” Peck says. “We’re so much more than just elephant ears and cheese fries.”
The layout of the convention center remained the same during the event, so those using canes could navigate better. | Photo courtesy of Sodexo Live!
Also during the event, for safety, the OCCC put a ban on the Segway scooters that normally cover the massive 8 million-sq. ft. space. And features like furniture, trash receptacles and displays were not moved throughout the event, as people had gotten the lay of the land on the first day.
“The convention center opened up the walkways for guest flow, and nothing was changed or modified,” Peck says. “Once you’re walking with the stick, you know where things are. I’ve never been in that situation, but apparently, you’re thinking the next 50 steps ahead as you go.”
To Berggren, the whole experience was a positive one, setting the bar high for future events.
“I think everyone heard our conversations about what’s important to blind people, and it’s reflected in the interactions our members had with the staff,” he says. “It makes selection of a destination much more easy, when we know that people are thinking about our members’ needs before we even arrive.”