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Kellogg’s pilots cereal boxes designed for the blind in the UK

With research revealing that 9 in 10 people that are visually impaired find it difficult or impossible to read the information on food packaging, Kellogg chose to alter its packaging to make that information more accessible to a larger demographic.

The cereal manufacturer partnered with the U.K.’s Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) and Co-op supermarkets to launch a limited-edition Coco Pops cereal box designed with NaviLens. If the launch is successful, the cereal giant hopes to redesign more of its cereal boxes to use this technology on a permanent basis.

NaviLens is a technology that exists in Europe primarily for use in public transportation systems to make traveling easier for those who are blind or partially-sighted. Kellogg is reinventing the use of this technology and bringing it both to the U.K. and to food packaging for the first time.

This technology operates similarly to a QR code but can be scanned by a smartphone from up to three meters away when the phone’s camera is pointed in the general direction of the cereal box. Once the system identifies the existence of a NaviLens code, the smartphone will prompt the user with audio to read allergen, ingredients and recycling information aloud.

These limited edition boxes are also embossed with information in braille and the text is written in a larger font size to promote legibility.

With millions of people in the U.K. living with visual impairment, Marc Powell, strategic accessibility lead at RNIB said in a statement that this update to packaging is promoting independence and choice for many shoppers. Kellogg’s limited-edition boxes are available in 60 Co-op locations across the U.K.