[UPDATED 8:20 p.m., April 22] On Thursday, Josh Goldenberg -- a blind kindergartener who wants to place Braille on store shelves -- was at Whole Foods Market in Thousand Oaks. The aisles now have Braille labels and markers that explain "The Joshua Project."
The markers tell Josh's story. He has been stamping out store shelf labels for about a month.
"We don't want to just allow it, we want to be part of it," said Ashley Eaton, of Whole Foods.
[ORIGINAL ARTICLE POSTED 11:18 p.m., April 15] Kindergartener Josh Goldenberg discovered something was missing from the labels at his grocery store when he went shopping for batteries with his mother.
Now, he's on a mission to Braille.
Josh, who has been blind since birth, wanted to know how he could shop if the labels did not have Braille.
"I went over to where the batteries are and said, 'They're out of those batteries,'" said Josh's mother, Christie Goldenberg. "He said, 'How do you know?' I put his hand on it and I said there's no Braille. He said, 'Why isn't there?'"
The Simi Valley boy received permission from a Westlake Trader Joe's store to put Braille labels on shelves. Josh set to work, picking out the items he wanted to Braille and creating the plastic labels.
"For him to be able to just go out and touch something and do this on his own, it makes him feel part of it instead of being away from them," said Josh's father, Evan Goldenberg.
Christie Goldenberg researched how the visually impaired shop. She found that, in many cases, blind shoppers are asked to wait until someone can help them.
"My son's so independent, he's never going to go for that," Goldenberg said. "To him, he's no different than anybody else. So, why is the world different when it comes to him? That's what he's trying to figure out."
