M&S rolls out braille range including industry-first gift card
Marks & Spencer has created a ‘Happy Birthday’ braille gift card after working with the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB).
It has also introduced a range of three braille greeting cards covering different celebrations.
The move follows suggestions from five M&S colleagues via the retailer’s CEO suggestion scheme. One of the staff members, Elizabeth Abudu, a team manager at the M&S Streatham Hill store, submitted the idea while assisting blind and partially sighted customers who regularly visit the shop.
The industry-first braille gift card features an embossed outer sleeve to communicate the ‘Happy Birthday’ message and an embossed gift card enclosed within the sleeve which can be used online or in over 700 M&S stores.
Kathryn Turner, product development director at M&S, said: “It has been fantastic to have input from RNIB to bring our new braille designs to life. At M&S, we’re committed to being a great place to shop for everyone. A massive part of that is offering inclusive products that represent the diverse communities we serve day in day out.
“Our customers are always at the heart of every product we design, and we hope our first-of-its-kind braille gift card and range of greeting cards will make it that bit easier for customers to show their love and appreciation for friends and family members with sight loss.”
RNIB estimates more than two million people in the UK are living with sight loss, of which 340,000 people are registered blind or partially sighted.
