In October, First Aid for the Blind’s president and CEO Kurt Deichmann set sail on an epic cruise to the Bahamas. But this was more than a vacation; it was a chance to improve the accessibility for blind and low-vision people.
This trip, organized by Julie and Marty Flarity from Cruise Planners, allowed a group of blind and visually impaired individuals and their families to meet with the leadership team of the Royal Caribbean cruise line. Kurt and his peers were able to enjoy a wonderful trip while also offering real-life, actionable suggestions to improve the company’s accessibility efforts.
The goal was to “find something that could definitely be improved and make an impact” for blind travelers, said Kurt.
Kurt enjoyed his trip immensely, but when it came to acknowledging accessibility obstacles, he noticed the biggest one while dining.
Kurt explained that, on this particular cruise, menus were not readily available. Kurt would have to take a photo of the menu board with his phone and use his Be My Eyes app to have AI read the choices to him.
This could be easily fixed, he realized, by simply including the menus on the cruise line’s app, which was purposely designed to be all passengers’ go-to resource for everything else related to the trip. This seemed like a natural place for food and dietary information, and it would make reading menus much simpler for visually impaired people who are already accustomed to screen readers.
“With our participation, we’re going to help Royal Caribbean make their app more accessible,” said Kurt, reporting back to the FAFTB team. “I think that's their first target.”
Kurt said that his recommendations were incredibly well received and that all conversations were helpful. Representatives from the accessibility team were already in discussions with their leaders to make improvements.
Kurt said that “knowing what is possible and what could be possible" is always worth talking about.
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