Meet the Family!

When I first met Beth's extended family, they were gathered at the family farm, way back in an isolated Tennessee hollow with no nearby neighbors, and with various firearms at hand (the family likes to shoot). It was early in the morning, and I had a two-hour drive from Knoxville to contemplate what I was getting into. 

It went well -- better than my marriage proposal sometime later, but that's a story for another day.  If I could offer two bits of advice to other nervous suitors, they would be: bring donuts, and help with the dishes. 

 
I'd like you to meet a new family.  You may remember that, as I began to work with the blind more than a year ago, audio players seemed to be a critical tool.  I was startled to find how expensive they were, given what I was able to learn about declining component and manufacturing costs. 

That set in motion a year-long effort to develop some less expensive players.  By God's grace, we are now beginning production of several.

Three initial models with raised buttons provide various combinations of solar and micro-USB charging, speaker or earbud audio, and sealed or accessible content.  We envision several additional models, but want to see what sort of traction we get with these.  

We've emphasized a simple interface, so these aren't the best option for moving through very long tracks or between dozens of tracks. However, for basic navigation or just listening through material, we hope these have hit a sweet spot. (If you need more advanced navigation, we can recommend excellent players from our friends at Faith Comes By Hearing, MegaVoice, or Renew World Outreach.)

Best of all, each of these is under $10, which should allow ministries to sow several times as many "seed" as they might have in the past.  If you want to know more, please visit SeedPlayer.org.  We've identified a number of promising audiences (blind and sighted) for these players; if you know of groups that you think would benefit, please let me know.