Stepping into ‘Dots Coffee’, the air is filled with a warm aroma of freshly ground coffee beans, the sound of portafilters being tapped on the counter mingling with the occasional shout of ‘iced latte’ in the background. For the baristas here, these scents and sounds are all they know of their workplace.
“All our front-of-house staff, including the baristas, are either low vision or completely blind,” said Gavin Kuangparichat, founder and managing director of Dots Coffee. “They perform all tasks within the shop, regardless of their vision level.”
Gavin said that some customers are surprised to know that the coffee is made by visually impaired baristas.
Gavin Kuangparichat, founder and managing director of Dots Coffee
Paramee Srirak, a customer, told Thai PBS World,“We were just in front of the store and we thought that, yeah, this coffee shop is quite cool, so we just wanted to grab some coffee, and then we saw that the baristas are all blind,”
Her friend, Chaiyathip Boonyapinyohul said that he did not notice the differences between coffee made by blind and sighted baristas.
Paramee Srirak (Left) and Chaiyathip Boonyapinyohul (Right)
And the baristas themselves are also surprised that this job is for them. “I was curious about how a blind person could make coffee. That curiosity led me here,” said Suphachoke Trutjaroen, who has been with Dots Coffee for five years now.
Suphachoke Trutjaroen, a barista at Dots Coffee
Sriprapa Phanchan, another barista said that people with disabilities may have limited job opportunities because of unintended prejudices against them.
“They judged us without even giving us opportunities to do anything".
Sriprapa Phanchan, another barista
She recalled the experience in her previous job, "It was a job handling paper documents. I had to look at the pages very closely to see what was written on them. But people at work took pity on me so they didn’t give me much work, and I felt like I didn’t contribute much to the organization," she explained.
Gavin, however, had a different vision. He aims for people with disabilities to advance in their careers and prove that they have potential like anyone else.
“You can see everything that a barista does, so it’s a way to prove they are doing all these things and change the mindset from that perspective. A coffee shop is something you can come to daily or at least regularly, and that consistent interaction over time normalizes the idea that blind people can work in this type of setting. That’s why we opened a coffee shop,” he explained.
Training these baristas was not without challenges. The team at Dots Coffee developed a specialized training program for the needs of visually impaired individuals. This process was a collaborative effort, with the first batch of baristas helping to refine the training methods.
“We didn’t want to think for them; we wanted them to be part of creating the training,” explained Piyatuch Tangchusub, the shop's operating manager.
Piyatuch Tangchusub, the shop's operating manager.
Gavin added that beyond technical skills, one of the biggest obstacles for the trainees is overcoming the self limiting mindset.
“Many of them grew up in environments where they have been taught they can not do things,” said Gavin. “We are reversing that mindset by placing expectations on them and making them understand that what they do here matters.”
A 2023 report by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities revealed that out of approximately 857,117 people with disabilities of working age (15-59 years old), only 311,259 are employed.
Gavin hopes that more organizations will offer jobs that create long-term value for employees with disabilities.
In Thailand, the ‘Act on the Promotion and Development of the Quality of Life of Persons with Disabilities’ mandates that organizations with 100 or more employees must hire at least one person with disabilities.
While this law offers hope, finding employment remains a significant challenge for many, particularly those who are visually impaired.
Dots Coffee stands as a light of possibility, showing that with the right support and opportunities, people with disabilities can thrive in any field.
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