Brands have come long way from narrow definitions of “skin colour” shades and towards being more inclusive and reflecting the diversity of their consumers (and the world). But there is still more work to be done.
One area that brands like L’Occitane and Bioderma have identified is in making their products more accessible for the visually impaired. The body-care brand Cleanlogic is also one such brand, including braille on its packaging.
See also: International Day of People With Disabilities: 3 things to know about invisible disability.
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Founder Isaac Shapiro had this accessibility in mind when he launched Cleanlogic almost 20 years ago. At that time, braille on consumer goods packaging was nearly unheard of, but he had his mother in mind, who had lost her eyesight when she was just a child.
Cleanlogic is relaunching its brand to shift from soft plastic to all-paper packaging, making the printing of braille a standard practice going forward. To ensure accuracy, the brand also partnered with the American Foundation for the Blind.
The CDC projects that the numbers of those who are visually impaired will only increase twice fold over the next three decades with an aging population, and without such efforts, many of those individuals may have to rely on neighbours or family members to help them braille such essential self-care products – a cumbersome, time-consuming process.
See also: 10 best Indigenous beauty brands to buy from.
Pharrell Williams’s own Humanrace line too noted the gap and has sought to bridge it as did Proctor & Gamble when they launched Herbal Essences bottles that can be differentiated by touch.
Related: 10 inclusive beauty lines to know and love beyond Fenty.
Shapiro also noted that including braille on packaging isn’t necessarily significantly more expensive than not doing so. He told Glossy: “It’s part of the mold of the product. This is all printed up beforehand, so there’s a stamp machine that prints it when it goes through the color dyeing process.” For larger corporations too that cost is further diminished across its larger-scale production than for indie beauty brands.
