Founded in 2011, the LightHouse Labs team has held dozens of roundtables and advised inventors and large tech companies on the blind-worthiness of their inventions. LightHouse Labs meets monthly and has already influenced many startup and large tech firms in developing products and services of fundamental utility for our community.
As part of the Labs’ initiative to influence future innovation, key members gathered for a first-ever three-day Ideation Weekend at our Enchanted Hills Retreat. The LightHouse Labs core members – all blind – were assisted by an enormous donation of time and talent from Will Carey, an experienced executive from Palo Alto-based Ideo, and Jennifer Wood, who has begun volunteer service as LightHouse’s Innovation Officer.
During the productive weekend, the Labs team discussed more than 100 ideas of new products and services that might benefit the blind. The group then had the demanding task of winnowing the ideas those that would be most impactful and those which could be done in a couple of years. The winning ideas will now be submitted to university design, innovation and engineering departments to be developed as part of senior and graduate projects. But it all began this June when a couple-dozen passionate blind techies gave of their time and talent to help the LightHouse brainstorm a better future.
