For those who are sight disabled, food is more about taste than visuals. They often use their hands to see. Wimpy South Africa took note of the fact and moulded it with its own business interests to give birth to Braille Burgers. These burgers were made by the Wimpy chefs, who painstakingly put sesame seeds on buns, in the form of little messages, which told the selected people, all visually impaired, about the burger they were about to eat.

1) The Idea

According to the fast food chain, it wants to feature its menus in Braille, so that its visually impaired customers can also read them. For that, it needed help from three institutions for the seeing impaired around South Africa. To enlist the help of these institutions, Wimpy prepared 15 burgers and served them to 15 people, all of them blind. This small gesture was aimed at informing them about the fast food chain’s intentions but in a beautiful way.

2) The Gesture

As is evident from the video given above, the 15 guests enjoyed their burgers thoroughly and they look surprised too. The video shows these guests reading their burger before sampling them and some of the messages have them laughing out heartily. One such message on one of the 15 burgers said, “100% Pure Beef Burger Made For You.”

3) Is It Exploitative?

Although the fast food chain believes that its gesture is completely humanitarian and a right step in the right direction, the critics feel that this is an exploitative gesture, where Wimpy is trying to cash in on human sentiments for its own benefit. As the chain has itself announced in the video - the 15 visually impaired people passed on their message to more than 800,000 people, again all of them visually impaired. That does sound a bit like advertisement, doesn’t it? However, it is still better than false advertising, as Kellogg was found indulging in.

Well, advertisement or not, the fast food chain has taken a step in the right direction, which is to grant an equal status to all its customers, including those with physical handicaps. Now, when you have a visually impaired family member or friend to take out for a quick bite, you know Wimpy’s Braille menu could be an option.

Video Courtesy: youtube.com

Image Credit- ifitshipitshere.blogspot