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eatsa Agrees to Make its Innovative Restaurants Accessible to Blind Customers

eatsa, an innovative fast-casual restaurant featuring innovative automat-style self-serve kiosks with locations in California, New York, and D.C., agreed to make its mobile apps, kiosks, and food-pickup cubbies accessible to blind customers.

eatsa uses the latest technology to allow customers to order food either on in-store iPads or via a mobile phone, with no cashier and no line. Customers then pick up made-to-order bowls in a personalized cubby.

TRE Legal Practice, representing Darian Smith and Serena Olsen, two California members of the National Federation of the Blind, along with Disability Rights Advocates representing the American Council of the Blind and a New York plaintiff, negotiated the settlement agreement with eatsa over the last six months. As a result of the successful negotiations, eatsa will improve the overall accessibility of its services.

eatsa will make its mobile apps accessible to the screen-reader software routinely used by blind smartphone users. (Screen readers “speak” the content displayed on the phone’s display or convert it via a Braille display, allowing visually impaired users to access information on their phones.)

It will also provide accessible kiosks for in-store ordering, modify its software to audibly notify blind customers when their orders are ready, and improve the accessibility of their cubbies where food is delivered.

We were pleased to work with a company such as eatsa that has made such a strong commitment to its blind customers and the fully inclusive future of self-service: Public Settlement Agreement with eatsa (PDF)