Procter & Gamble-owned hair care brand, Herbal Essences, has announced plans to produce an inclusive hair care bottle design that will allow visually impaired consumers to distinguish its shampoos and conditioners by touch. The new packaging will be available on Herbal Essences bio:renew shampoo and conditioner bottles beginning January 2019, and features tactile indentations (Straight = Shampoo; Circle = Conditioner), alleviating in-shower confusion those who have low or no vision.

The initiative was sparked by Sumaira “Sam” Latif, P&G’s Special Consultant for Inclusive Design, who has been with the company for over 18 years and is blind. She challenged her colleagues with the question of how they would be able to identify the difference between the Herbal Essences bio:renew bottles if they were blind folded, pointing out that she is among the 23 million visually impaired people in the U.S. who face challenges like this every day. Her compelling insights ignited focus groups, packaging and manufacturing engineers, and communications teams to bring the special etched design to life as quickly as possible.

“Imagine the daily challenges, like choosing matching clothes in the morning or simply taking a shower after a long day. As a blind person, you must do these things using touch rather than sight. You don’t really know which bottle the shampoo, conditioner, or soap is…you have to get creative. I used to put an elastic band around shampoo or sellotape on conditioner to remind me,” said. Sumaira.

The codes were purposely kept simple and were designed to be universally recognizable for all people, including those who haven’t had the opportunity to learn braille.

“Making our products more accessible can improve the experience for everyone,” said Lynn Hicks, Herbal Essences North America’s Brand Manager. “While we designed this tactile feature specifically for the visually impaired, others, like seniors or kids, will also benefit from this feature.”

According to Sumaira, adding the new element was not seamless on the company’s fast manufacturing lines. “While the solution might sound relatively simple, we process hundreds of bottles a minute, so changing a manufacturing process is complicated when you’re dealing with those kinds of quantities.”Shane Mays, Herbal Essences Packaging Engineer, noted the “pride and passion was contagious across the entire manufacturing team who worked together to make this possible.”

Procter & Gamble cited that that only four percent of global businesses are actively designing products for those that are disabled and hopes this example of inclusive design sparks ideas across the industry to make beauty accessible to all.

Mark Riccobono, President of the National Federation of the Blind, shared, “We are pleased to see an industry leader like P&G and its Herbal Essences brand incorporate accessibility into the design of packaging. This new tactile feature enhances our independence and shows that the brand wants to truly serve all consumers. We hope other manufacturers will take note of this effort and work with blind people to find solutions that allow us to identify their products quickly and independently.”

To learn more, please click here to watch the brand’s video about the initiative.