Drink coffee with us. Learn with us.

When you pop in for an exquisite coffee, or a decadent pancake stack, you might have noticed we’ve left little snippets of information around explaining why we do things a little differently from other cafes. For example, items on our menu come with codes, but do you know why?

It’s because it helps the trainee who is serving you with memory and communication, and helps simplify and speed up your order.

Example info point

We wanted to know if these ‘info points’ were interesting to our customers, so we asked for your feedback via a survey, and many of you responded – thank you! The majority of you said you had noticed the info points and learnt something about how, with a few tweaks, workplaces can become more inclusive. Almost 90 percent of you even said you were considering how you could make similar adaptations in your own workplace, which has made us and our trainees very happy indeed.

So, next time you visit, why not have a quick read of an info point in between bites of a gooey brownie?

Just in case you can’t stop by any time soon, here’s a list of some of the other ways we’ve adapted our working environment to make sure our trainees feel comfortable in it:

• Changed the floor colour around the tables to a different colour. This helps distinguish the table top from the floor. Contrast can be very helpful when you are visually impaired.
• Used symbols for our toilet signs. Symbols are universally understood and don’t need reading or language skills.
• Put dimmers on the lights as some people can find bright lights overwhelming.
• Put up visual instructions behind the bar for the trainees. These help create a communication friendly environment. No language is required to enable someone to succeed.
• Put textured tape on our tables to help our trainees to wipe from one textured strip to the other, in order to clean the whole table top.

Feel free to steal our ideas for your own workplace. You can find more tips for building an inclusive business here. Show off about it and tag us on social media!

Read about how El Mercado became one of the most inclusive businesses in Bangkok>