How to quickly identify items being Fully blind?

[BlindhoundFarms]

We are a small little start up and we are just now putting our website up with square. We sold at our second fair using square and we ran into some issues. My husband and I are both visually impaired, he is fully blind, and we are having issues with the process of identifying items customers bring up and him putting them into the system. It was a mess and we ended up just having to do every transaction as a custom item. With the accessibility it isn't realistic to try and have it read our whole inventory/item list.to us to try and find each item to put it in the cart. It reads way too much back. 

One solution we thought of is to braille our products with the sku using a braille labeler and then typing the sku in. The other way that would really help is if we could put QR code on each item so it pulls it up and easily allows us to put each item in the cart.  We just aren't sure if square offers such an option? 

Any suggestions or ideas? We are new to all of this and trying hard to learn. 😅

[Candlestore · Accepted solution]

@BlindhoundFarms ;

If you would be going through the Option of Printing a QR code to Scan an item into Square.  You could just create or have Square Create a SKU which you can print as a Barcode and scan the Item to get the price and the Inventory.  I am not sure which Square System you are currently using or which device you are using as a Scanner to read the 2D QR codes.

[MayaP]

@BlindhoundFarms, thanks for jumping in to help! That’s a great suggestion. I appreciate you sharing your insights!

[BlindhoundFarms]

Thank you so much!!!! We gave this a try and it seems to be a fairly good solution in the meantime! 

[MayaP]

Hey @BlindhoundFarms -

Thanks for sharing your experience, and welcome to Square! It’s great to hear that you’re setting up your website and selling at fairs. Accessibility is important to us, and feedback like this is invaluable.

In the meantime, creating SKUs and printing SKU labels, as candlestore suggested, was my workaround as well. Would that solution work for you? If you can share more details about your setup and the devices you're using, I’d love to explore additional options that might help!

[BlindhoundFarms]

Thank you! Yes we took their advice and gave it a try at a small market this weekend and it seems to really help. 

We do have a few areas we struggle a bit with still. We can do a decent amount on the phones but not everything, so we tried using a laptop but the square site isn't fully accessible. It doesn't allow you to duplicate items or fill in variations completely. 

😊

[MayaP]

Hey @BlindhoundFarms – I’m sorry, not sure how I missed your reply 😞

I’m glad candlestore’s suggestion worked! Could you share more details on the issue with duplicating items or fully filling in variations? Make sure to tag me in your response so I don’t miss it again — I’ll be keeping an eye out!

[BlindhoundFarms]

Hi @MayaP 

Unfortunately, square isn't accessible at all for the blind on a laptop or desktop. 

It doesn't read or let you navigate any of the menu at all. Square is unfortunately useless for anyone having to navigate with accessibility software.

Also, many of your icons on a phone don't read the function and they just say "Image". It makes navigating difficult.

Even on the phone it's not fully accessible but it is a bit better. This has unfortunately made us realize Square might not be the best option for us long term. 

Thank you, Jenn

[MayaP]

Thank you for sharing your experience @BlindhoundFarms. Your feedback is invaluable, and I will ensure it is communicated to the appropriate team. I hate to see you go, but I understand you need to do what is best for your business. If you have any other insights, questions, or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out.