Braille on personalised Kellogg’s packaging

The packaging industry already has numerous smart solutions for people with visual and hearing impairments, many of them in the pharmaceutical industry. Patients are given support through NFC chips, LEDs, screens and integrated speakers, which help them to ensure the correct intake of their medication. If required, important information can be passed on to a selected group of people.

In many countries – including the EU – pharmaceutical packaging has been given additional Braille inscriptions for a number of years now. However, while Braille is often part of the packaging for pharmaceuticals, it is still quite rare in other segments. Nevertheless, Kellogg’s have now made a beginning in the bakery goods industry, offering a solution for personalised Braille messages on snacks.

According to estimates, the United States has approximately 62,000 visually impaired school-age children. To find out how a product is packaged, they need to feel it. And of course they can't read anything on the packaging – unless, that is, the message is provided in Braille.

In their current campaign, cereal manufacturers Kellogg’s are providing free personalised stickers with Braille messages. These can be placed on lunchtime snacks for your kids or friends.

But there’s even more. Kellogg’s have also developed a special lunch box with a special feature for a special snack. As well as space for a snack bar, the folding box comes equipped with a voice recorder. So if a child cannot read Braille or hasn’t quite mastered it yet, they can listen to a personalised message. The box has a 10-second pre-recorded message which can be overwritten by different messages over a thousand times – for instance by parents.

Kellogg’s, who have their head office in Michigan (US), used to receive frequent requests for cereal boxes in Braille at their Australian production facility. Now they’ve responded – even though, as Kellogg’s themselves point out, it’s costing their packaging plant quite a bit. Their first products with Braille on each box are  Rice Krispies Treats.

K. Kellogg, the founder of the company (which is now over 100 years old), spent the last years of his life with a considerable visual impairment, and to honour their founder, the company has been specially committed to disabled employees for quite a while. To run their current ‘Love Notes’ campaign, Kellogg's have been working in partnership with the National Federation of the Blind.