ATU779 – Louisiana Association for the Blind with Mindy Brown

My name is Mindy Brown and I am Senior Director of Client Solutions with Louisiana Association for the Blind, and this is your Assistive Technology Update.

Hello, and welcome to your Assistive Technology Update, a weekly dose of information that keeps you up to date on the latest developments in the field of technology designed to assist individuals with disabilities and special needs. I’m your host, Josh Anderson with the INDATA Project at Easterseals Crossroads in beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana.

Welcome to episode 779 of Assistive Technology Update. It is scheduled to be released on May 1st, 2026. On today’s show, we are super excited to welcome Mindy Brown from Louisiana Association for the Blind to the show. She’s going to tell us all about the Louisiana Association for the Blind, as well as some different assistive technology available both through them and ones that she’s just excited about. We’re also joined once again by Ale Gonzalez from Bridging Apps with an app worth mentioning. Listeners, as always, know that if you need a transcript of today’s show, you can go to eastersealstech.com, find the show, and it’ll be available right there for you. Our transcripts are generously sponsored by our friends at InTRAC. You can find out more about InTRAC and the amazing services they offer at relayindiana.com. Also, don’t forget listeners, if you’ve got an idea for someone we should have on the show, a topic you’d like to learn more about, a question, a comment, or pretty much anything else you can always reach out to us at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org, or give us a call on our listener line at 317-721-7124. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to give us a listen. Let’s go ahead and get on with the show.

If you happen to have questions about assistive technology, we have Assistive Technology Frequently Asked Questions, or ATFAQ. The show is hosted by Brian Norton and features yours truly, along with Belva Smith, as we all talk about assistive technology with questions that come in from email, phone calls, and other means. We also don’t always know the answer, so it’s very important that we have listeners that can help us out with some of those questions, because while we like to think every once in a while that we may know everything, we’re proven wrong almost daily on that one. So if you’re looking for more podcasts to listen to, or if you have questions about assistive technology, make sure to check out Assistive Technology Frequently Asked Questions wherever you get your podcasts.

Listeners, we want to make sure to invite you to our next INDATA full a day training coming up on May 5th, 2026 from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM Eastern. And it will be over note-taking tools and apps, different accommodation to help us all with taking notes. So I don’t know about you, but I know I could definitely use some assistance taking notes. Actually, I say I probably take pretty darn good notes. The problem is I take them in about four different systems, counting the pieces of paper scattered across my desk, and I usually can’t find the right information when I need it. So we’re going to go over all kinds of different ones. We’ll be joined that day by some folks who will sound very familiar to listeners of our show. Josh Ferry Woodard from Jamworks, as well as Lee Chambers from Genio, and Chris Hamblin from Caption.Ed will all join us to talk about their different accommodations. Then in the afternoon, our own Blake Allee, demo and load lead for the INDATA Project, will be on talking about idea mapping and Granola AI. And then I will finish out the day talking about some different physical devices to assist with note-taking. Not just paper and pen, I promise to elaborate slightly more than that.

If you’ve never attended one of our full-day trainings, just know you log in via Zoom and you can get CEUs for the day. They’re completely free to attend, but you do have to register. I will put a registration link down in the show notes that you can easily find more information, but please do join us for our next INDATA full day training on May 5th, 2026 from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM, and hope to see you there.

Listeners next up on the show, we’re very excited to welcome back Ale Gonzalez from Bridging Apps with an app worth mentioning.

This is Ale Gonzalez with Bridging Apps, and this is an app worth mentioning. This week’s featured app is called Fetch. The Fetch app is a receipt scanning and uploading platform that rewards users with points or money for purchases. Users can earn rewards that can be redeemed for gift cards or cash by simply taking photos of receipts from various retailers. What makes Fetch stand out from other apps is its simplicity and the fact that it works with both physical and digital receipts, making it easy to earn rewards without much effort. Users find the app engaging and motivating because they can see their points add up quickly, which kept them excited to scan more receipts. Fetch is currently available for both Android and iOS devices and is free to download. For more information on this app, and others like it, visit www.bridgingapps.org.

Listeners, today we welcome Mindy Brown from the Louisiana Association for the Blind to Assistive Technology Update. She’s here to tell us about the association and some of the tech they offer that she is really excited about. Mindy, welcome to the show.

Nice to be on there.

Yeah, it is good to have you on. Before we get into talking about everything, could you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself?

I have been in Louisiana for about 20 years, and been with Louisiana Association for the Blind for about 20 years. And I spent 10 years in business development and marketing, and then the last 10 years I have been down at the rehabilitation center working in [inaudible 00:05:54] rehab, also on the clinical side, and then also learning about assistive technology and developing business in that area, which ended up being a huge passion for me. And that is where I am today.

Awesome. Awesome. Well, Mindy, can you tell us a little bit about the Louisiana Association for the Blind? Kind of what is it and what all do they do?

We are part of National Industries for the Blind, we’re one of the lighthouses that is part of that. We have seven facilities, we have two manufacturing, one warehouse, we have the headquarters. We are getting ready to move in under headquarters in an absolutely beautiful new area, and then we have the rehab piece that we haven’t moved in yet, but that we are going to be selling that building. But we employ over a hundred visually impaired, and we’ve been around since 1927, so next year will be our 100 years. Our main goal is for independence for the blind community.

Very, very cool. And I know you said you’ve been there for quite a while as well and held a few different roles. So Mindy, can you just kind of dig in a little bit? You said that you’ve been very excited about assistive technology. I guess can you kind of describe what your role is with the Louisiana Association for the Blind now?

Yes. I take all of the assistive technology that is out there and bring in the new pieces. We are now even moving forward past that, meaning that we’re actually looking at assembly inside of our facilities. We just brought on one called Display, and we’re actually manufacturing that. So the visually impaired they’re actually doing the assembly of it. And then we’re doing also the distribution piece, we also have the government piece too. So I’m learning how to bring in work, but we also are taking assistive technology and the new stuff that’s come, new items that come in, new devices, new opportunity, and I get to have the privilege of bringing it to the schools, bringing it to the individuals, bringing it to the workforce, bringing it to their homes, bringing it to the hospitals, trying to just get it out there. And that includes getting it out there on the government side of letting them understand why it is so important for people with vision impairments. That they can do everything and anything that a person with working eyes can do, it’s just their eyes don’t work.

And so with this technology, it collaborates between the workforce and the person, or the school and the person, or their everyday independence and the person and gets them the opportunity to be as independent as possible so they don’t need a whole lot of help from others. And it’s very rewarding. And our CEO, which his name is Brian Patchett, he is also visually impaired himself, has been invited to be on the National Disabilities Board for the United States. He was invited by Mike Johnson and he accepted, and he starts his venture with that this year.

That’s super cool. Just fostering that independence and showing that, yeah, there’s just a different way to be able to accomplish those goals. Well, you brought up the Display that you guys are actually now kind of manufacturing and doing work with. Can you tell us what it is?

It is a portable monitor, it’s 4K, it literally comes down into a little bitty… It’s about nine inches by nine inch container, so it folds down in that, but when it opens up it goes into a 4K resolution. There’s absolutely there’s like 97% no blue in it so it doesn’t hurt your eyes. And on top of it it’s 100% glare free. So not only is it portable to move across wherever you’re going, whether it’s in an airport, or if it’s at the school in a classroom, or if it’s in a meeting, or if it’s an everyday on your desk, it still is an opportunity to bring no glare and no blue, and it makes it easier on your eyes so you’re not overworking them or exhausting them. And it hooks up to absolutely anything, Bluetooth, or you can even connect it to your computer, phone, television, even an EVM, electronic video magnifier. So really anything that is technology can connect to it. And it does about eight hours worth of battery, so it should last throughout the day. If not, you get a battery pack with it.

Very cool. And then you kind of said how small it all folds up. How big is it once it’s all kind of open and showing that 4K display?

So we have a 24-inch right now that is available for purchase. And then we’re getting ready in the end of April, beginning of May, we will start producing the 35-inch.

Nice. Very cool. Wow, that’s huge.

Yes.

I mean not huge, but so that’s a very big monitor, especially to be able to fold up in such a small kind of package to make it portable. Because yeah, I know I think of if you need an external monitor of any size whatsoever, you’re carrying around something with a stand and everything else. So having something that’s actually portable to meet your needs no matter where you are is really great.

Yeah, it’s three pounds. It’s three pounds. You can’t beat the three pound thing. And then you could also charge it while it’s still in the case. So that’s a huge part too, is that even though if you’re in an airport and you’re needing it to go to the next meeting in a different state or whatever, you can still charge it as you go. So it has a lot of convenience to it.

Well Mindy, we talked about some other assistive technology. You’re going out there, you’re kind of showing folks things that are available, helping build independence, helping build awareness on those. What’s some other assistive technology that has you excited?

I would have to say probably one of my favorite pieces of technology that’s out there is the iTAB, which is made by LVI America. I would say that’s probably one of my favorite. It’s a high-tech. You have the iTAB and then you have a tab, which the TAB is a droid, and then the iTAB, of course, is an iPad. I would say that that’s probably my favorite piece of technology out there in high-tech.

Mid-tech, I guess it depends on how you divide it up. Mid-tech, I would have to say the WeWALK Cane is one of my favorites. And then there’s also the Odyssey, which is made by Humanware. I absolutely love that device, because it doesn’t matter how you put your paper down there… And for people who are older or they’re just getting used to it, a lot of them you have to line up your paper. And so this way with the Odyssey, you just put it down there and it automatically starts. It’ll take it from anyway and it’ll just start reading to you.

Nice.

So I feel like there’s enough technology out there for everybody. If we cannot help somebody with technology in today’s world, we didn’t do our job because it’s out there.

Yeah, there’s so many-

But those are my favorite pieces of equipment.

Very cool. Well can you describe the iTAB to us a little bit, just kind of how it works or what all it does?

Yes. It’s almost like a really smart CCTV, and then some. So you can actually do two things at once, but the best part about it is it has a software in it that is a fillable. And what I mean by that is that when you hook up the iTAB or you hook up the TAB and the software, you put the piece of paper under there and I want you just to think that you’re a child in school. And if they have checkboxes or if they have a space where they have to fill in, they can put it underneath that camera, it automatically becomes fillable, and then they just can just go through by hitting tab and it’ll go down to the next line. It’ll read to them that question and then they’re able to fill it in. If it comes to multiple choice, it’ll do even a dropdown and it’ll read the dropdowns and you can choose which dropdown you want. If it’s four things you have to pick from and there’s boxes and you check it, automatically tells you to do that and you just hit tab and it goes over. But the best part about it is it’s fillable.

Nice.

That makes life so much easier. And then at the same time, you have two different cameras on it. So you can use the camera where you can look at the board, you can split your frame so you can see what the teacher’s doing on the board, but at the same time you can still see your piece of paper that’s down there that you’re filling in. It truly is a multitask type of equipment that can get you through any meeting or any class that you’re in, whether it’s college or school age. It is just phenomenal. And you can also hook up at the same time to other devices. I believe you can still hook up to two other devices at the same time.

Nice, nice. So it gives you a lot of different options. And I do love the way that it definitely gives you the independence to not just have the information read back to you, but actually be able to have the means to be able to fill it out independently as well.

Yes.

Very, very cool. Well just because you mentioned a few others, for folks who don’t know, can you tell us about the WeWALK Cane?

Oh, the WeWALK Cane is amazing too. So I have actually been with WeWALK since they pretty much started. Actually, it was when they first started. We were in beta testing when they first hit me up. So I’ve got to watch it evolve, and they’ve done a beautiful job. The WeWALK Cane is a smart cane that will literally tell you so you’re not running into a branch that’s low, or if there’s something sticking out it’ll tell you. But at the same time, it will give you directions. It will tell you where you’re at, it will tell you the streets. Like if you’re walking down the street and you come, it’ll tell you that you’re walking up to a sidewalk where there is a blinking walking sign that you walk across the street, it’ll tell you where you’re at and which way you’re going. It already knows where you’re at, where you’re going, because you can put in your direction and it’ll take you there, and it’ll tell you eventually how many steps you take or how long it’s going to take to get there.

Recently, they came out for the O&M side, which is of course the teaching side, the instruction side. And so now they’re able to even go back and watch how their client week went in between the last session and they can kind of see where their strides are, where they’re having problems. So if they are having problems with multitasking, with directions and their strides are not the same and it kind of got them offset, they’re able to walk in and help with that. So it helps with the instruction side. It tells you where you need to go. You could literally say, “Hey, I want a Starbucks. Send me to the closest Starbucks,” while you’re on a bus and it’ll tell you which stop you need to take. And it’ll even tell you again, “Hey, this is the stop you need to take.”

Oh, wow.

So you get off the bus that way, and then it’ll guide you to the Starbucks. But it does so much, but it also does the instruction side too. So that way your instructors out there that is teaching it can tell if their client needs more help in those areas. And so they really have created an amazing device that teaches them to stay safe where if there’s limbs or cars or anything that’s in the way. And then at the same time it gives them directions for their GPS and tells them exactly what to do, whether you’re on a bus or you’re in a car, it don’t matter, even if you’re walking down the road. Plus the instructor side just helps tremendously too.

That’s super cool. We had them on, it’s been years. I think when it very, very first kind of came out. So I love hearing about all the new stuff. And yeah, the information to be able to be sent back to the O&M instructor, just what an amazing tool because they get probably not nearly enough time with folks teaching.

No.

I don’t even know how they possibly do it. But yeah, to be able to have that, because I’m sure they probably get a, “Oh, how was this week? How did everything go?” “Oh, it went fine.”

Yes.

Or little answers like that as we all kind of do. But to be able to actually see where those gaps are and be able to address them, it has to make their job so much easier. Or just so much better, because then you can focus on where those gaps are as opposed to maybe spending time where the strengths are. So very, very cool.

Yes.

And then you talked about it a little bit, but just because you did bring it up also, could you talk about the Odyssey a little bit? You said that it’s very simple. I pretty much just put my paper in it and it kind of reads it to me.

Yes. So the Odyssey actually has AI too. So you can ask it specific questions.

Nice.

But it does a whole lot with a little bitty device. And I’d have to say that it’s probably the most portable reader. The OrCam’s out there too, but it’s kind of going away a little bit. But the Odyssey on the other hand, it’s just a small box and it’s totally free, meaning that you don’t have to plug it in. It actually has a battery in it.

Nice.

And then on top of that you just put the paper underneath it, you push a button and it reads to you. Or you can, after you push the button and it captures the picture, then you can ask questions to the AI portion. Like for instance, if you’re looking at a bill and you want to know when the due date, you can simply just ask Odyssey where the due date is and it’ll find it and tell you exactly the due date. Or if you say, “How much is my bill?” It’ll tell you exactly how much your bill is. It’s really a great device for the elder or the older people with visual impairments. It really helps them a lot. And we do quite a bit of them throughout the year. Well, we see a little over 3,000 people a year.

Wow.

And the Odyssey is probably our second mid-tech highest volume that walks out of the store.

Nice, nice. And I got to admit of everything that’s come to pass in the time that I’ve just worked in assistive technology, being able to have the AI find information for you. Just because I could remember having to, “Oh, I have to take a bill and put it under a reader,” and then listen, listen, listen, listen, listen, listen, listen to hear just random numbers. Because all the different codes and things that are on there, listen to all that stuff just to try to figure out how much do I owe and when is it due?

Mm-hmm.

And you have to listen to so much information to get it, so I love that you can just pull that out. And like you said, it’s… I don’t want to say conversational, but it’s very easy. There’s not a huge learning curve if you just push a button and ask it what you want.

Yeah.

So that can make it much, much better for kind of everyone. And Mindy, just while we’ve got you here, are there any low tech accommodations that you just really love? They don’t even have to be new. Maybe just ones you see make a big difference that you really seem to like?

I do. My favorite low tech, even though it still plugs into the wall, is the Stella Go.

Hmm. And what’s the Stella Go?

I absolutely love it. It is a lamp that literally has a base. The neck of it goes up, it’s only about two feet tall, it sits on a base and it charges, but you can pick it up. It’s super light. I don’t know exactly how much, but it’s less than two pounds. It’s super light. And you can go anywhere with it. You can move the neck so you can use it at like a flashlight, or you can easily just walk it from one desk to the kitchen. Or if you go into your closet, you can literally see the colors of your clothes or what you’re looking for or in the bathroom. It is the most portable light out there. It also is created with a certain amount of nanometers, which is a huge thing for the visually impaired because it helps with the clarity of the light is so important.

I know the OttLites are out there and they’re very popular, or there’s other ones, but when it comes to the Stella they purposely made it for the visually impaired. And they literally focus on what is good for the different disabilities of the diagnosis of the eyesight that we have out there. And so they’ve made it where it’s softer on the eyes, the nanometers is exactly correct, but it is very, very clear light and it is the perfect lighting. It also gives different settings. It has a blue to it, it has yellow to it, it has a clear white to it, you have different shades of it. But the nanometer, if you put it underneath there with a nanotester, it literally is sharp. It’s the prettiest color light I have seen on the market. It is a little bit more pricey, but well worth it. And their warranty is amazing. And the people of Stella are phenomenal.

And sometimes, I swear that makes all the difference. I’ve seen assistive technologies come and go just because of customer support.

Yes.

So yeah, that always makes a giant difference. Well Mindy, you said you guys serve like 3,000 people a year. You’ve been there 20 years. I don’t even want to do the math on how many folks you’ve probably helped during this time. But do you have a story about maybe a person or two and how you were able to assist them? Or how maybe AT was able to help them accomplish their goals? We all know, especially in this business, that AT isn’t the end all, be all. It takes drive, perseverance, all those kinds of things at the same time. But maybe do you have a couple stories you might like to share?

My dad was visually impaired, which kind of when I got the job with Louisiana Association for the Blind, I didn’t realize how much of that impacted me. But that person, watching him go through life… He has keratoconus, so he wore sclerals, a specialty contact just for that disease. And if he didn’t have his “eyes” in, he truly could not see very well at all, and he was a truck driver. And he’d wear these sclerals sometimes for hours upon hours and his eyes would get really red, but if he lost them it would really put him in a challenging situation where he couldn’t drive. And so I watched that throughout my lifetime. And when he didn’t have them in, he would get super close to the screens of the TVs or the computers. And so that’s what I remember.

But as far as clients go, I have a few of them that are super close to me in my heart that I have been able to help. And it has been challenging to get everybody through it. And what I mean by that is including the state, because they were all state clients. But at the end of the day, I fought for them on the state side and kept and made sure that the process was moving forward, and now they’re very successful. One of them is now a lawyer in Minden, Louisiana, and he is actually on our board now. And the other one is in college and she just graduated, and I get to watch her walk in May. And it’s been a very… I’ve watched her struggle for six years in college and she just never gave up. And that’s a huge thing, huge. I would’ve gone above and beyond if possible to make sure that they were taken care of. And it was a reward at the end.

Oh, that’s super cool. Super cool. And I love you kind of brought up those stories, and it’s amazing how many folks I talk to that do this kind of work that have a personal story or personal connection as well. Just something that’s kind of happened to either a family member, themselves, friends or someone they kind of grew up with and how that led them to working like this.

Well Mindy, if our listeners want to find out more about the Louisiana Association for the Blind, or maybe even some of these things that we talked about here today, what’s a good way for them to do it?

www.lablind.com. And you just go to the services page or the community services tab and you’ll be able to look at all the information there. Or you can always email me at mbrown@lablind.com. Or our number is 318-698-2300, and I’m extension 106 and I would be happy to help anybody. And it don’t matter if it’s in Louisiana or outside, I could definitely help you figure out what’s the next step or what you need.

Awesome. We will put all that information down in the show notes so that folks can reach out, learn more and just find some of the great things that we got to talk about. Well, Mindy, thank you so much for coming on today for telling us about well just kind of about your journey, working for the Louisiana Association for the Blind, about some of the great tools out there, and about some of just your favorites that are out there and how they’re able to help individuals. Thank you again.

And thank you. And I appreciate you for inviting me on.

Do you have a question about assistive technology? Do you have a suggestion for someone we should interview on an Assistive Technology Update? If so, call our listener line at 317-721-7124. Send us an email at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org, or shoot us a note on Twitter @indataproject. Our captions and transcripts for the show are sponsored by the Indiana Telephone Relay Access Corporation, or InTRAC. You can find out more about inTRAC at relayindiana.com. A special thanks to Nicole Prieto for scheduling our amazing guests and making a mess of my schedule. Today’s show was produced, edited, hosted, and fraught over by yours truly. The opinions expressed by our guests are their own, and may or may not reflect those of the INDATA Project, Easterseals Crossroads, our supporting partners, or this host. This was your Assistive Technology Update, I’m Josh Anderson with the INDATA Project at Easterseals Crossroads in beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana. We look forward to seeing you next time. Bye-bye.