30 Years of Innovation: Transforming Accessibility in Education and the Workplace.
When VisionAid Technologies was founded by John and Sue Ellis in 1996, the world of assistive technology looked very different to today.
When I asked our Managing Director, Ellis, about his early memories of the family business he said,
“I still remember helping my father build custom PCs that worked with some of the very first screen readers for DOS and Windows 95. Video magnifiers - or CCTV systems as they were known then - were large, heavy pieces of equipment that were anything but portable. Reading printed documents often meant sitting at a dedicated workstation, and accessing information away from your desk simply wasn't an option”.
Thirty years later, the pace of innovation has been remarkable. Today's assistive technology is faster, more accurate, more discreet and significantly more portable than ever before.
At VisionAid, our focus has always been simple: helping people access information quickly, independently and with confidence, wherever they are.
In Education
For students, technology has opened doors that simply didn't exist in the 1990s. Portable magnifiers, OCR devices, screen readers, refreshable braille displays and reading pens now enable learners to access textbooks, lecture notes, examination papers and digital resources more independently than ever before.
At Work
In the workplace, the changes have been equally significant. Where early solutions often relied on dedicated workstations, today's assistive technology is lightweight and portable, enabling people to work across offices, factories, warehouses, healthcare settings and remote environments without being tied to a single desk. Employees can magnify spreadsheets on dual monitors, access inaccessible PDFs, read handwritten notes from meetings, use wearable devices to view presentations, and use portable magnifiers to check paperwork, stock labels or instructions.
VisionAid product
One of the best examples of how far technology has come is our CoaSt Duo. Designed specifically for education and workplace environments, it's lightweight, portable and discreet, allowing users to switch seamlessly between close-up documents, presentation screens, whiteboards and lecturers - all from a Windows laptop or iPad.
What really sets the CoaSt Duo apart is its unique deskewing feature. A student no longer needs to sit in the front row to clearly see a whiteboard, and an employee doesn't have to choose a particular seat in a meeting room. Once the image is captured, the perspective can be quickly corrected to display it on their laptop or iPad as though they were sitting directly in front of it. It provides access to visual information that can exceed what someone with 20/20 vision would naturally see!
While technology has changed dramatically over the last three decades, one thing hasn't changed at VisionAid: we believe the best way to recommend a solution is to let people experience it for themselves. Whether we're supporting a university student preparing for exams, helping an employee through Access to Work, working with a SEND team, or helping an organisation make its workplace more accessible - we offer completely free, no-obligation demonstrations across the UK.
The right piece of technology can transform someone's confidence, independence and productivity - but only if people know it exists. After 30 years, that's still what drives us every day - and we're excited to see what the next decade of innovation will bring!”
If you'd like to find out more about the CoaSt Duo or any other solutions, please contact VisionAid on freephone 0800 002 5555 / enquiries@visionaid.co.uk or visit visionaid.co.uk.