Appetite For Accessibility August
We all need to eat, and we all need access to information and tools. From package directions and recipes to apps for grocery shopping and food ordering, lack of non-visual accessibility to information and tools can create barriers for us. This month, we share non-visually accessible tools and explore applications to break down those barriers so that we may satiate our Appetites for Accessibility!
- August 6: Accessing Food Package Information
- August 13: Grocery Shopping Apps – What’s Out There and How To Use Them
- August 20: Recipe Websites – What’s Out There and How Useful Are They?
- August 27: Food Order Apps – What’s Out There and How To Use Them
We used our Grocery Shopping Apps – A Bridges Helpdesk Review blog last week to shop, so let’s find some new recipes! Check out these hard copy and online accessible recipe resources and apps; let’s get cooking!
Braille Cookbooks – Hard Copy
Free hard-copy braille cookbooks
It’s true; we can get braille cookbooks delivered for free. Two great resources are Share Braille and the National Library Service.
National Library Service
The National Library Service (NLS) offers hard-copy braille and enlarged print books to individuals across the nation through regional libraries. As of August 20, 2024, NLS has 397 braille books with “cookbook” in the title. NLS also offers many more cookbooks in large print and via sound recording.
Our Maryland State Library for the Blind and Print Disabled (LBPD) received the 2024 Regional Library of the Year Award from NLS, and these fabulous folks can help us find the cookbooks we want and need! Please note that these are library books, and they must be returned.
Find out more about the Maryland LBPD in our Bridges Resource Library’s Maryland Library for the Blind and Print Disabled entry.
Share Braille
Share Braille connects braille readers with braille books. Once we register for Share Braille (it’s free), we can search for books and request that they be sent to use at no cost! Check out Share Braille for yourself to browse and request Share Braille’s cookbooks and many, many other book genres. Bonus: with Share Braille, we keep the books sent to us; there is no need to return them after a certain length of time. Of course, when we no longer need a braille book, Share Braille is a great place to send it.
Low-cost hard-copy braille cookbooks
Seedlings
Seedlings is a non-profit organization that produces braille books at a low price. As of August 20, 2024, Seedlings only has two books with “cookbook” in the title, but there are two.
Additionally, Seedlings offers free braille book programs:
- Seedlings’ Book Angel Program provides up five (5) free braille books to every blind/low vision student in the United States. We could choose one or both of the cookbooks in our orders!
- Seedlings’ Teachers of the Visually Impaired Program (TVIP) provides the same offer, up five (5) free braille books, to “certified teachers with a visual impairment endorsement” each year.
National Braille Press
The National Braille Press (NBP) is another non-profit organization offering braille resources at reasonable prices. As of August 20, 2024, NBP offers for sale books with the term “cookbook” in the title in multiple formats: fifteen (15) in either hard-copy braille or accessible digital format, two (2) titles only in hard-copy braille, and three (3) only in accessible digital format. NBP’s books range in price from eight dollars ($8.00) to twenty-two dollars ($22.00) each.
Accessible Digital Cookbooks and Recipes – Available for Download
Accessible Digital Cookbooks
BARD
NLS also offers digital sound recordings. As of August 20, 2024, NLS has 640 audio recordings of books with “cookbook” in the title. Access these books through our local NLS library, LBPD. Find out more about the Maryland LBPD in our Bridges Resource Library’s Maryland Library for the Blind and Print Disabled entry.
Bookshare
Bookshare serves as a repository for more than one million digitally accessible books. As of August 20, 2024, Bookshare has 5,403 digitally accessible books with “cookbook” in the title. Find out more about the Maryland LBPD in our Bridges Resource Library’s Bookshare entry.
Accessible Digital Recipes for Download
NFB-Newsline®
NFB Newsline® is a program that offers free access to more than five hundred (500 magazines and newspapers across the country (and some international publications as well). These publications include current issues and archives, and many of them contain recipes.
Find out more about the Maryland LBPD in our Bridges Resource Library’s NFB Newsline® entry.
ACB Braille Forum Magazine Recipes
The American Council of the Blind (ACB) is an organization of blind and low vision individuals. ACB’s magazine, ACB Braille Forum, is available in accessible digital files and as audio recordings. We can find a variety of recipes from around the country in the ACB Braille Forum’s “Recipes from Our Readers” section.
NFB Braille Monitor Magazine Recipes
The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) also consists of blind and low vision individuals, Issues of the NFB’s magazine, Braille Monitor, are available in accessible digital files – back to July 1957. Additionally, NFB offers Spanish versions of Braille Monitor issues from January 2023 through the present.
Accessible Cooking Videos
Described and Captioned Media Program
We at Bridges like to think of the Described and Captioned Media Program (DCMP) as the Bookshare of videos because it offers accessible versions of mainstream curricular materials – DCMP offers professionally described videos. In fact, as of August 20, 2024, DCMP offers 134 cooking-related audio-described videos. Find out more about the Maryland LBPD in our Bridges Resource Library’s Described and Captioned Media Program (DCMP) entry.
Cooking Without Looking
The great team at Cooking Without Looking offers engaging cooking ideas and tips. Check out the Cooking Without Looking YouTube channel and Cooking Without Looking podcasts.
Recipes on Mainstream Websites
Searching for Recipes: Easy, but Not Always Efficient
For many of us, our first temptation when we want information or resources is to Google what we’re looking for. Unfortunately, in some cases, this isn’t always the most efficient way to do it from an accessibility standpoint.
Our team has found that Googling a recipe often brings up links to Pinterest, which is completely inaccessible, followed by several links to websites that contain a lot of pop-ups that made the recipe very difficult to read with a screen reader. So, this is one of those situations where we need to find specific sources that we know to be accessible and go to those places to find what we’re looking for. Not being much of a cook himself, Chris went to some of his friends who are more knowledgeable in that area for information for this Transition Tip, then checked out the sources they pointed him to. have are the recommendations that resulted.
AllRecipes
Allrecipes is a popular and helpful resource website for finding recipes. On this page, one can explore through categories or search through their extensive collection. If you want to save a recipe, it’s probably a good idea to copy and paste it into a Word document or email yourself the link.
For Those with Dietary Restrictions
One of the greatest challenges for people with dietary restrictions, whether blind or sighted, is finding recipes that fit their requirements. This makes accessibility all the more important. One of our readers recommended Gut-Friendly Recipes website, an accessible source of gluten-friendly recipes.
Reach Out to Us at the Free Bridges Helpdesk anytime!
Please check out the Bridges Technical Assistance Center Resource Library today!
Contact us
Follow the Bridges Helpdesk Facebook page for more transition tips, and please contact the Bridges Technical Assistance Center’s Free Helpdesk for Maryland Blind/Low Vision Transition Students, Families, and Educators anytime using:
- Our Accessible web form
- Email: Helpdesk@IMAGEmd.org
- Text or Leave a Voice mail message: (410) 357-1546
- Bridges Helpdesk Facebook page or Facebook Messenger
This unique project is being coordinated through The IMAGE Center of Maryland, a center for independent living in Towson, and it is funded by a grant from the Maryland Department of Education Division of Special Education/Early Intervention Services.