Have you encountered braille on a business card before?

At a networking event last month, an employee from The Tennessee Disability Coalition handed me their business card. When I first felt it, I thought something had gotten on it, like food, because I felt an odd texture to it. When I actually looked at it, I realized that they had incorporated braille into their business card!

How cool and very on-brand, right?!

So since then, this card has been on my mind, and I wanted to share some thoughts and reflections, because we're here to learn and grow together:

1. I have never seen a business card with braille on it, and it has NEVER once occurred to me to add braille to a client’s business card. I didn’t even know that was possible, and I have no idea how to design that.

2. I like to consider myself a 'champion of diversity and inclusive design practices', but this was an element of design and accessibility that never crossed my mind. Clearly, there's still more education and learning for me to do.

3. Business cards are an important part of your marketing collateral, and it's really important that when you design/create them, you think about the information prospective clients need to know and how you can best communicate this clearly to them. When 1/4 of individuals identify as having a disability, taking into consideration how you can make your business cards more disability friendly is not only an ethical choice, it's a great business choice.

If you've encountered or created any unique disability-friendly business card designs, I'd love for you to share them in the comments.

This was a great, unexpected learning experience for me, and I hope it is for you too!