Krista Hamilton, who is legally blind, helped McDonald's improve its self-service kiosks to make them more accessible for the visually impaired. She demonstrates at a kiosk in Southside, Ala., on Friday, Aug. 26, 2022. (William Thornton / wthornton@al.com)

Krista Hamilton grew up at McDonald’s.

Through her teens, she worked in the family business with her brothers and parents, who are franchise owners of 10 McDonald’s restaurants in Etowah, Shelby, Jefferson and Talladega counties.

That was before she lost most of her sight about six years ago. Now she’s helping the visually impaired order meals when they visit the restaurant.

“This is possible, not only for people that are blind but all visually impaired individuals,” she said.

Hamilton, 29, knew the burger business, having worked in various jobs at the family business prior to heading to Samford University to study Interior Architecture.

But an undetected sinus infection six years ago while in her final semester at college eventually placed her in a coma, which led to several mini-strokes affecting her optic nerve, rendering her legally blind. She was able to finish school the following year, and has been working in the years since on her passion to make facilities and public areas more accessible under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

At the same time, she also had to learn what it’s like to live without sight in a world geared toward those who have it.

Just the simple act of going to a restaurant - something she’d done her whole life - became complicated.

“It really bothers Krista when we go some place, they lay the menus down, and they don’t have a braille menu, and you have to read to her,” her mother, Content, said. “That’s something that everyone wants to do on their own.”

One of Krista’s passions has been helping businesses and schools desiring to make accommodations to the disabled more accessible. As she explained, engineers who work on aids for the blind may themselves have sight, which results in them not thinking through how a blind person would use the device, or experience a building. For example, a sign may have braille printing, but if the dots aren’t raised, they don’t help someone without sight.

Last year, McDonald’s began rolling out a new version of its self-service kiosks, the touch-screen devices that allow customers to order from the menu and pay without talking to a cashier. The company introduced the kiosks in 2015, but began updating them to be more accessible to the visually impaired after recommendations by the National Federation of the Blind.

The new kiosk screens can also be raised and lowered to better accommodate a customer in a wheelchair, and the images can be magnified for those with only low vision. They were designed by Vispero, a Florida-based company.

Krista Hamilton, who is legally blind, helped McDonald's improve its self-service kiosks to make them more accessible for the visually impaired. She demonstrates at a kiosk in Southside, Ala., on Friday, Aug. 26, 2022. (William Thornton / wthornton@al.com)

For the blind, the kiosk has a headphone jack on the side, with braille instructions. When a person inserts headphones, the voice navigation program reads the menu while the customer manipulates five keys - up, down, right, left and center - to get to the desired items. The voice also prompts the customer to pay.

In 2021 the Hamiltons had just remodeled one of their McDonald’s locations in Etowah County, and they ordered the new audio navigation kiosk to be installed, one of the first in the state. Krista went to test it out - “play with it,” as Rusty, her father said.

Krista has very little vision and cannot read print, but has learned to read braille and navigate devices using voice over. She relies mostly on her hearing and her White Cane to maneuver around spaces.

Krista quickly noticed a few glitches with the kiosk.

“There were some hiccups,” she said. “When you pressed the right arrow to go to the next item, occasionally it would skip an item, and break the sound.”

Krista’s comments, and a meeting with Vispero engineers, led to an update of the software.

“For me, it’s like a family event, being able to assist in creating access for people with disabilities to order good food at McDonald’s,” she said.

Krista Hamilton, who is legally blind, helped McDonald's improve its self-service kiosks to make them more accessible for the visually impaired. She demonstrates at a kiosk in Southside, Ala., on Friday, Aug. 26, 2022. (William Thornton / wthornton@al.com)

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