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“Tell me if the lights are on,” Lou Fioritto said to me as he took me on an office tour of his company, Braille Works. We were walking into the ear-deafening embossing room, where almost a dozen machines imprint Braille onto reams of paper.
Uh, no Lou, I told him. The lights aren’t on.
Fioritto is blind. He has no need for office lighting. His 13 other employees do, however.
“If they didn’t need light, we’d save a lot of money,” he says.
Fioritto is a pill. I asked what other jobs he had. He told me he worked for the I.R.S. at one point.
“I also sold pencils,” he said, dryly.
Two, three, four ...
He’s got a million of them. Try the veal. He’ll be here all week.
The Seffner company owned by Fioritto and his wife Joyce (she’s sighted) prints restaurant menus in Braille and large print. They’re the subject of the cover story in Wednesday’s Flavor.
As the story explains, the Fiorittos started Braille Works in their basement in Cleveland in the early 1990s after they ate at a Chi Chi’s restaurant that had Braille menus. It was a revelation for him.
They had no experience printing anything, but started calling restaurant chains and offering their services. Eventually Applebee’s and Bob Evans signed on. They now serve dozens of clients.
For the sighted, there’s a photo gallery you can peruse that I shot while reporting the story.
For those with visual impairments, here’s an audio version of the story.
Here’s a list of restaurant chains that offer Braille and large-print versions of their menus:
Also, here’s a sampling of restaurants that offer Braille and/or large-print menus to customers:
The American Cafe
Applebee’s
The Bamboo Club
Bob Evans
Bonefish Grill
Buca di Beppo
California Pizza Kitchen
Carrabba’s Italian Grill
Cheeseburger in Paradise
The Cheesecake Factory
Cracker Barrel
Damon’s Grill
First Watch
Fleming’s
Lee Roy Selmon’s
LongHorn Steakhouse
McDonald’s
Mimi’s Cafe
Olive Garden
Outback Steakhouse
Red Lobster
Ruby Tuesday
Smokey Bones
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