The 16-year-old Helena High School student, who lost her vision at age 4 after suffering an allergic reaction to an antibiotic, used to automatically request the popular poultry item to avoid the hassle of making someone else read her all the entrees off restaurant menus.
"I got pretty sick of them," she said.
And it's thanks to Legare and her new fledgling business, "Braille the World," that's also beginning to happen in Missoula.
On Wednesday, Legare added the 4B's restaurant chain to those eateries that are embracing Braille menus as a way to better serve vision-impaired customers.
"This is a service we can provide to assist in their independence and give recognition to someone participating in a worthy project," said Jeff Hainline, 4B's president.
Legare's business venture was born less than a year ago, when she shared her idea with her uncle while attending a Lutheran Bible study camp on Flathead Lake over Labor Day weekend. Carl Schweitzer thought his niece's idea had potential and encouraged her to pursue it.
Before their visit to western Montana was finished, they stopped to see Schweitzer's friend, state Senate President Bob Keenan, R-Bigfork, who owns the Bigfork Inn restaurant. The restaurant became the first to pilot Legare's idea of Braille menus.
In the months that followed, Legare and Schweitzer began creating Braille menus for several restaurants in the Helena area, using specialized computer software. She also landed some work with the Bozeman-based MacKenzie River Pizza Co. chain.
Last month, Schweitzer ran into Keenan in Helena and learned he was in town attending a meeting of the Montana Restaurant Association. Schweitzer and Legare came by at lunch to give a presentation on "Braille the World." Hainline heard it and was intrigued.
"Everyone was impressed with the idea and the passion behind it," Hainline said. "As sighted individuals, I think we take our sight so much for granted. This was always in the back of my mind, but I didn't know where the resources were."
Two days later, Hainline called Legare, wanting to place an order for 26 Braille menus, enough to place two in each of the dozen or so 4B's restaurants that pepper Montana and in the one 4B's restaurant operating in Grants, N.M. The 23-page menus also include the history of the restaurant chain and its famous tomato soup.
Legare is amazed at how quickly restaurant owners warmed up to her idea, and she's hoping to take her enterprise to the next level in making the world more accessible to the visually impaired by encouraging other types of businesses, such as banks and government agencies, to offer Braille materials.
"I don't want to do just menus," she said. She envisions bank statements, bills and educational materials appearing in Braille. In fact, on Thursday, Legare and her associates are meeting with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks to discuss the possibility of offering nature articles in the writing system for the blind that uses characters made up of raised dots.
"I know it will be really hard, but I know we can do it if we put the energy into it," she said.
Matt Castner, "Braille the World" sales associate and Legare's boyfriend, said there are several key reasons why it is important for people with vision impairments to have Braille available to them. In the restaurant situation, it's degrading to have to ask a fellow diner to read the menu aloud or to stop a waiter or waitress to do the same, he said.
"It's inconvenient for them if they are busy and it is limiting to you because they may leave out the price or some of the options," said Castner, who has been blind since birth.
A Braille menu makes a visually impaired diner feel more welcome, he said.
"You think, 'Here is a restaurant that really cares about serving everybody,' " he said. "A lot of places have wheelchair ramps, handicapped bathroom stalls, but where are the Braille menus?" he said.
"It makes me feel like jumping up and down," chimed in Legare. "I just feel more independent."
Castner also emphasized the role Braille plays in literacy among the blind, pointing to statistics that show 90 percent of all blind people in America are illiterate. Some people in education have suggested technology advancements - audiotape recordings and other assistive technologies - has made it less necessary for them to learn to read Braille. Yet of those 10 percent who are literate, the vast majority find employment, making literacy a key economic factor for the visually impaired, he said.
Jim Marks and Dan Burke, of the Missoula chapter of the Montana Association for the Blind, gave their thumbs up to Legare's efforts and the support she's received from restaurants like 4B's and MacKenzie River Pizza.
"Having access to the information is fantastic," Marks said.
"When you get a Braille menu, there is nothing more welcoming," Burke added.
Reporter Jane Rider can be reached at 523-5298 or at jrider@missoulian.com
|
 |
 |
Add your comment now! Write your comment in the form below.
(Email address is for verification only. If you'd like to email a story, look for the link above)