Same supermarket. Same shelf. Same right to know.
Two tins the same size and weight, with nothing to tell them apart. A carton from the chilled aisle that might be the milk or might be the soup. For a sighted shopper, putting the shopping away takes a couple of minutes. If you can’t see the label, it can mean guessing, or ringing a neighbour, or opening something you then have to throw out.
The name of the product in braille has been a legal requirement on medicine packaging across the UK since 2005. Pharmaceutical companies manage it on packaging of every shape and size, and we are asking food producers to do the same.
Join the Dots
Disability Equality Scotland is campaigning with Sight Scotland, Sight Scotland Veterans and Oban and District Access Panel for a statutory duty on food businesses to provide braille on packaging, giving the name of the product.
We have kept the ask narrow for a reason. There is only so much room on a label, and only so much anyone wants to read with their fingers while standing at an open fridge. Name of the product helps with initial identification of the product. Allergens, ingredients and nutrition need more space than braille can give them, which is where a QR code or a scannable symbol such as NaviLens does the work.
Braille and technology work together
BBraille and technology work best together — braille to tell you what the product is, technology for all the other details. The name of the product in braille would let people identify it instantly, without having to find their phone, unlock it, open an app, locate a code and hold the packaging steady.
Braille is also literacy. For blind and partially sighted people, it’s reading and writing on your own terms, independent of a screen, a signal or someone else’s assistance. That matters well beyond the shopping aisle: it’s a lifelong skill tied to independence, privacy and dignity.
Have your say: our UK-wide survey is open
We want to know what happens in people’s kitchens when a label cannot be read.
In 2023 we surveyed 389 people, and 76 per cent told us food labels did not meet their accessibility needs.
That showed us how widespread the problem is, but not what it looks like day to day: how often it happens, what goes wrong, how much food gets thrown away, and how much people have to rely on others for help.
This survey will help us gather evidence to support Food Standards Scotland and Defra as they consider the case for braille on food packaging. The decisions ahead will rest on what people with sight loss tell them about the difference accessible labelling would make, and this survey is how we bring those experiences together. Because food labelling rules are agreed across the UK, we need to hear from people in England, Wales and Northern Ireland as well as Scotland.
You can complete the survey online, in braille, in large print, by audio, or by phone or email. If you would like it in one of these formats, or would prefer to answer by telephone or email, please get in touch at policy@sightscotland.org.uk or on 0131 378 2800 and we will arrange it. Responses are confidential and we will not quote anyone without asking first. If you know someone whose experience should be counted, please pass it on. The survey is open until 31 October 2026.
Online: Braille and Accessible Food Labelling Survey – Fill in form
How you can help
Complete the survey, or pass it to someone who should. Evidence is the currency this campaign trades in.
Beyond that, write to your MP or MSP — letters from constituents carry real weight. Ask your supermarket or favourite brand what they’re doing about braille; several producers have moved because customers asked.
What our Join the Dots campaign has already achieved
2022 — A written question in the Scottish Parliament secured a ministerial answer confirming that mandatory braille would be among the policy considerations in any future review of food labelling law.
January 2023 — The campaign launched on World Braille Day, with Sight Scotland, Sight Scotland Veterans, Disability Equality Scotland and Oban and District Access Panel calling for a statutory duty on retailers. Petition PE1997 closed with 1,547 signatures.
March 2023 — First meeting with Food Standards Scotland, who invited the campaign in after responding to the petition. FSS went on to raise braille labelling with DEFRA and with the Food Standards Agency in Wales and Northern Ireland.
August 2023 — Our survey on the accessibility of food packaging found that 76 per cent of respondents said food labels did not meet their accessibility requirements. The Committee cited the finding directly.
2023 to 2024 — The Committee considered the petition three times and wrote to Food Standards Scotland, DEFRA, the Scottish Government and the Food and Drink Federation Scotland, drawing the first substantive DEFRA statement on braille food labelling.
September 2025 — The Scottish Government confirmed in writing that Food Standards Scotland is developing a Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment on braille food information, and that FSS would seek a follow-up meeting with us as part of it.
March 2026 — Three parliamentary questions at Westminster drew confirmation that officials across the four nations are coordinating on braille through the Common Framework.
2026 — We are working with Food Standards Scotland on the evidence for its assessment, and our UK-wide survey is open.
Braille on medicines has been a legal requirement for newly authorised products since 2005, and for all products since 2010. Co-op has used braille on own-brand packaging since 2001. The question has never been whether this can be done.
The campaign group
Disability Equality Scotland (DES) is a founding partner, bringing reach across the disability community and the research behind our 2023 evidence base.
Lucy Mulvagh is proud to be involved in the campaign since taking over as CEO at DES in May 2026.
Roger Firman, In late 2025, Roger Firman was invited to join the braille food labelling group. As a life-long braille reader, he is dedicated to seeing improvements in the use of all accessible formats for print disabled people, and braille in particular.
Marie Harrower, is a braille user and reader and a passionate campaigner for the increased use of braille labelling on food products, working with the Oban and District Access Panel as one of the original petitioners behind the Braille Food Labelling Campaign.
Blind from birth and raised on a croft on the Isle of Mull, she was educated at the Royal Blind School in Edinburgh before training and working as a physiotherapist in Oban. In 1976, she represented Great Britain at the Montreal Paralympics, winning silver in the discus and bronze in the shot-putt.
Marie now draws on a lifetime of experience to campaign for the right of blind and partially sighted people to identify their food independently and safely.
Kim Hartley Kean contributes on inclusive communication policy and wider third sector networks.
Jim Tolmie, is a chair of Oban and District Access Panel, is one of the original petitioners and leads much of our parliamentary engagement in Argyll. Chartered Civil Engineer who prior to retiring worked for Strathclyde Region and laterly Highland Council as a senior Roads official ,managing an extensive road network on the west coast of Scotland”.
Veronica Whymant lives in St Andrews and has lived with a visual impairment all her life, being registered blind in her early twenties after her sight deteriorated through her teens. She studied German at university and spent a year in Germany teaching English at a boarding school for blind children, where she first learned Braille. Since then, she has relied on determination, organisation and adaptability to maintain her independence. As she puts it: “I am a very independent person and greatly dislike having to ask for help, but supermarket shopping is incredibly stressful because I cannot see enough to make out the packaging. Consequently, having more labels with braille would go some way towards lessening that stress – definitely a good thing!”
Joanna Zawadzka, Sight Scotland and Sight Scotland Veterans Campaigns and External Affairs Officer, coordinates the campaign and leads on political engagement and regulatory liaison.
The group meets regularly and welcomes new members — if you use braille, work in food or packaging, or simply want to help, we’d like to hear from you.
About braille
Braille is a tactile system in which raised dots represent letters and numbers, allowing blind and partially sighted people to read and write by touch. In Scotland the Unified English Braille code is used. It appears on far more than books — medicine packaging, lift keypads, door signs, and a small number of food products.
Find out more from The Braillist Foundation, the Scottish Braille Press and Sight Scotland. World Braille Day is on 4 January each year.
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