We were lucky to catch up with Mason Fessenden recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Mason thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

This business started as a high school project as I was getting quite tired of relying on others to read menus. It hasn’t been very emotional but I’ve been turned down twice where one restaurant thought she was heavily ADA compliant, but yet the owner didn’t have a braille menu and was very dismissive toward it!!! However despite the hiccups, nothing has stopped me from making people and customers feel happy, 1 braille menu at a time. This will forever be my mission and vision, providing clarity to those that read differently rather than visually.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

The lack of resources (specifically menus) for the blind and low vision are the reality of our world today unfortunately. Many companies that are in the thick of this struggle are mom and pop small businesses, either menus of the sort are too expensive and, let’s face it, they are, or not a lot of blind folks advocate for such resources, since technology has come a long way in providing menus accessibly online. However, it’s always good to continue reading braille to not lose that skill. The inception of Clarity Menus and More was initially a high school project in 2019, as I’ve always been tired of family members reading restaurant menus which made me feel a little more excluded in what to eat, since sometimes, I would like something without having to ask and pick a server’s brain and what they recommend as well as family and others. Thus, came up with a business venture to help bridge this gap. I’ve done a total of 15 menus and growing and looking forward to the future and what it’ll bring!!! Though some menus are time consuming, the happiness of restaurants I work with are of ut most importance. There has been 1 long and quite lengthy menu which I had my family read to me so it could be transcribed, it took tons of time, (even days) but all the countless hours and days of typing were worth it though, and, I Got It Done!!! Still in the process of finding more businesses as I write this, but hoping to provide more happiness, 1 braille menu at a time.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

There was a very long and lengthy menu which my family had to read out, which took countless days and hours of sitting and typing, but I was thankfully able to push through and persevere, and the typing and time were worth every moment.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I have given out business cards sharing more about the business and put a welcome post on Facebook and Instagram. Have gotten interview requests on messenger and it’s been a bit of a slow process, but managing just fine. I am a one man band and having to stay on top of emails and social media, so my advice is if you know anyone, see if they can work with you.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @clarity_menus
• Facebook: Clarity Menus and More
• Other: clarity.menus@gmail.com