A staple of Christmas preparations is the sweet treat of an advent calendar. The joy of day-by-day chocolate indulgence is enjoyed by many, but for the visually impaired, advent calendars aren’t regularly accessible.
This is where Dotty About Braille, set-up by entrepreneur Hayley Kellard, stepped in to make a positive change, by creating Braille greetings cards and advent calendars.
“I'm trying to bring new Braille products to market, and advent calendars seem to be so popular these days but it's still not possible to go into a supermarket, or department store and buy a Braille advent calendar,” says Hayley, who was born with a rare genetic eye condition called Wagner's Syndrome.
Hayley has been working hard to get more brands involved with Braille advent calendars, and Dotty About Braille’s first partnership came with Fetcha Chocolates last year. “It was really successful so I wanted to expand the range and offer more variety,” says Hayley, and it was NOMO who came along for the 2025 festive season.
Hayley came across NOMO, a plant-powered and free from chocolate brand, through LinkedIn, and sent their senior brand manager, Tara Stevens, a message asking if she could work with them to make their advent calendars accessible. “She was very open to it,” explains Hayley.
Hayley is determined to expand her range and continue to work with brands to add Braille to their advent calendars. “Big brands need to be leading the way with this, if they're not in a position to add the Braille themselves, they can come to me and I'll happily work with them,” she says.
In response to a LinkedIn post celebrating Dotty About Braille’s partnership with NOMO, RISE Coffee took an interest.
“With RISE Coffee, they saw my post on LinkedIn, commented and within 24 hours we'd worked through the details and it was live on my website – that's how easy it is for brands to offer an accessible version of their advent calendar,” says Hayley.
The work done by Dotty About Braille and its collaborators mean visually impaired people will have access to enjoy a popular Christmas tradition.
“I do feel extremely proud of what I've achieved with Dotty About Braille,” adds Hayley. “It makes me so happy to know that on 1 December, more blind and visually impaired people will be opening their own advent calendars independently.”
