Persil adds QR codes on packs to improve accessibility

Detergent brand Persil has added Accessible QR codes (AQR), developed with augmented reality specialists Zappar and in collaboration with Royal National Institute of Blind People RNIB, to a range of packs. The codes aim to provide the UK’s 2 million blind and partially sighted people with access to product information and a more inclusive shopping experience. 

Persil’s capsules in plastic-free packaging and its Ultimate Liquids range will now feature a new enhanced Accessible QR (AQR) code on their packaging. Once accessed via smartphone, the code provides product, usage, safety and recycling information in a structured way that has been designed with blind and partially sighted users in mind.  

The AQR also interacts with the device’s configured accessibility features to display information in larger text or in audio-described and voice-guided formats. 

The technology that makes the AQRs more detectable works by adding additional markings to existing QR codes. 

‘Although QR codes have been in mainstream use almost 30 years now, they have lacked the important ingredient of accessibility,’ said Zappar CEO and co-founder Caspar Thykier. ‘This is really about helping make a small but important everyday quality-of-life improvement in people’s lives.’  

This simple enhancement means brands can integrate a layer of accessibility, use their existing code scheme, not take up any additional space on-pack. 

Nadine Slyper, Unilever laundry marketing director, added: ‘As well as driving a broader conversation on the accessibility of consumer goods, Unilever, RNIB and Zappar hope this initiative will make accessible product information a standard for packaging design.  

‘For us, this is bigger than Unilever, and we see it as a first step in helping make packaging more accessible for everyone. We’re pleased to be exploring Accessible QR codes as a business and hope to see other companies and accessibility apps join in this conversation,’ she said. 

Mark Powell, RNIB’s accessibility innovation lead, said: ‘More than 2 million people in the UK are living with sight loss and by 2050 it will double to over 4 million people. It’s great to be collaborating with Unilever and Zappar on making packaging more accessible for blind and partially sighted people, as we should have the same freedom, independence and choice as sighted customers.’  

Currently the QR codes can be detected by accessibility app Zapvision with integration into Microsoft Seeing AI. Unilever’s ambition is to work with other accessibility apps to support wider integration of the technology and to expand the reach across different categories and countries. 

As the technology is rolled out, for example, Unilever will work with Microsoft to collate user feedback from the blind and partially sighted communities to optimize the technology for further improvements.  

Persil’s capsules in plastic-free packaging and its Ultimate Liquid range were rolled out with the new enhanced codes on-pack in March and the brand has committed to adding Accessible QR codes to its full range by end of next year. 

As a business, Unilever plans to expand and add Accessible QR codes to additional products in the UK and globally in 2023, covering other Dirt Is Good brands such as Breeze Excel in Thailand.