Local Noy Levi is on a mission.
Courtesy Noy Levi
Cooper City resident Noy Levi is asking Florida restaurants to give diners with visual needs the ability to read and order independently.
Restaurant menus can challenge nearly anyone when the type is microscopic and the dining room lighting requires a phone flashlight. For Cooper City resident Noy Levi, however, the issue goes far beyond an inconvenient dinner.
Levi is the founder of Can You Read This?, a campaign seeking to make large-print and braille menus mandatory in Florida restaurants. She launched an online petition that has gathered 200-plus signatures from 70-plus cities, with supporters in Orlando, Jacksonville, West Palm Beach and elsewhere.
Her mission grew from personal experience. Levi has keratoconus, an eye condition affecting the shape of the cornea, and lost vision in her right eye following a confusing three-year medical journey. She was officially considered blind in that eye last year.
As she began paying closer attention to restaurant accessibility, she discovered that large-print and braille menus were not universally required.
“Everyone should be able to order independently and confidently,” Levi told Browardist. “This is all about independence and all about confidence. And it’s also all about inclusivity.”
Multiple Broward businesses are already helping her spread the word. Buddie’s Bakery in Cooper City became the campaign’s first business supporter, created a large-print menu and featured Levi’s work on social media. Leaf House in Cooper City and Big Spoon Bakery in Davie have displayed campaign flyers. A fourth Davie bakery is also on-board, she says.
Levi said restaurants sometimes tell her that customers never request such materials. Her response: “Why would they ask for a resource they don’t know can be available to them?”
The University of Central Florida neuropsychology student also operates Pivot Print, which creates budget-conscious large-print menus and signage. Outside her accessibility work, Levi is a writer, poet and filmmaker who served on the jury for the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival and is currently writing a picture book.
Her first major petition target is 1,000 signatures. Upon reaching it, she plans to contact organizations such as Disability Rights Florida and begin discussing how restaurant-menu requirements could change without placing an unreasonable financial burden on small businesses. Her eventual target is 10,000 signatures, followed by outreach to lawmakers and hospitality organizations.
“Ten thousand people are behind this,” Levi said of the message she hopes to deliver. “They want large print and braille menus in Florida restaurants.”
