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Accessibility.net was founded by Patrick J.
Fischer in Martin City, Missouri in 1997 as F1-Key, LLC which held a
Missouri Rehabilitation Services for the blind contract. The company was an authorized
distributor VAR - Value Added Reseller for the leading manufacturers of
technology which help persons who are blind and visually impaired from
1995 to 2014. Prior to that Patrick founded Share Technology
in 1988 in Kansas City, Missouri which was a company that volunteered
and also charged for his services as a technician.
Patrick discovered in the early 90’s that the technology for
persons with disabilities was ahead of the curve as speech synthesis,
text to speech, scan and read, voice recognition, to name a few, were
not used in the mainstream. Persons with disabilities and the assistive
technology they used, were early adopters to what we use on tablets and
smartphones today. In 1993 with the help of the director (Dave
Vogel) of RSB -
Missouri Rehabilitation Service for the Blind, Patrick created the
Laptop Reader for the Blind. The Laptop Reader for the Blind used a CompuAdd
laptop running Microsoft DOS and Windows 3.11, along with an Artic
transport hardware synthesizer and a copy of Artic Win Vision screen
reader.
In 1999 the company moved its office to Omaha,
Nebraska and working out of an apartment grew sales in the states of
Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri and Kansas while holding a Rehab Engineering
contract in Missouri. In 2000, BrailleCards.com was purchased with Patrick's partner Bob Varney of Lamar, Missouri. This grew to become the Braille Mission which owned and operated 12 websites dedicated to braille. The Braille Mission closed its doors in the Spring of 2014 and split off BrailleShop.com and BrailleCards.com to separate organizations. In 2002 the first showroom featuring low vision
products was open at 108th and Maple, and in 2003 a bigger showroom was
opened at 120th and Center called the Low Vision Mart. In 2004
F1-Key, LLC changed its corporate status to an S Corporation and renamed
to Accessibility dot Net, Inc. and moved to 111th and Fort. In 2006 Vision Helpers was branded as a US
trademark and a showroom was opened in Des Moines, Iowa, Denver,
Colorado and one in Omaha at 111th and Fort Street.
In the Spring of 2014, Vision Helpers closed the two showrooms.
Today Vision Helpers promotes video eyewear that helps the
visually impaired.
Today Patrick works for the greatest company in
America, NanoPac, Inc. which is 30 years old! Nanopac understands the
importance of technology to help persons blind and visually impaired.
NanoPac provides the best customer service and support for every product
sold. We provide products and services in 8 states; Oklahoma, Arkansas,
New Mexico, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska and Colorado. We sell
direct and also work with eye doctors that want to distribute the
products we sell. If you are in one of these states please call us at
800-580-6086 so that we may help you. On March 31, 2018, Accessibility dot Net, Inc.
became the first Corporate sponser of Accessibility TV. The
goal with Accessibility TV is to provide a place where people can find
companies that build Accessibility into their products.
Accessibility TV operates with volunteers, and
your donations.
Here is a list of companies which build
accessibility into their products:
If you are a company that builds accessibility
into their products and would like to add your company to Accessibility
TV please send us an email. There is no charge.
Thank
you for your support and donations!
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