A bit About The Cracker barrel Controversy
I was reading my friend John Gruber’s post about the Cracker Barrel controversy just now when it occurred to me there’s an accessibility angle to Cracker Barrel. It isn’t pertinent to the brouhaha itself—that the company’s rebrand is supposedly “woke”—but rather to the experience of eating at a Cracker Barrel restaurant as a Blind person.
Back in December 2014, when my journalistic career was nascent, I took my first-ever big trip with my partner and her mother. We flew cross-country to Florida, in part to visit the tourist traps in Disney World and Kennedy Space Center, as well as some friends of theirs who lived in the “Sponge Capital of the World” known as Tarpon Springs. The trip was also memorable for being only the second time since 2002 that I flew in an airplane and slept in a hotel. (Take a quick glance at my Flighty history and you’ll notice I’ve done much more flying in the years since. Last year alone, I flew 17 times! This year? So far, 0.)
Anyway, about Cracker Barrel. One night somewhere during the trip, we had dinner there. Upon sitting down at our table, I was especially delighted to discover Cracker Barrel offered a large print version of the menu for guests who request one. At the time, my iPhone 6 Plus didn’t have a bespoke Magnifier app as iOS does now; because of this, I was grateful for the large print menu because, obviously, I could actually see what I wanted to order. More pointedly, I was tickled to get the large print menu because no other place had one before. To this day, that Florida Cracker Barrel remains the only restaurant I’ve ever been to that had an option for a more accessible menu. I don’t know if it existed due to a display of empathy or the restaurant’s clientele of older people—maybe both?—but it was damn cool to learn as someone who copes with low vision. I left hoping to see other places offer a large print menu, but alas, never saw another one then and since. I imagine given the power of smartphones nowadays—cf. Magnifier on iOS—perhaps the costs incurred with printing a second menu, however great, isn’t the most economically prudent path for most eateries (especially small ones) to walk down.
For the record, I’m with Gruber in that Cracker Barrel’s new logo is nicely done.
