A woman who is blind is setting up a new business that will enable people who are visually impaired to hear descriptions of catalog merchandise.
With the help of a grant and a group of Kansas University business students, a blind woman is hoping to fulfill a need for the visually impaired.
Kathy Elbe, who lives in Edgerton, about four years ago started an organization called Home Readers.
The nonprofit venture provides cassette tapes for people who are blind or visually impaired, describing the contents of a variety of catalogs.
The customer base for Home Readers ballooned from 75 when she first started to 1,800 today, creating a need for more office space. Elbe runs Home Readers from her home in Edgerton.
A group of KU students have been helping her set up a new office at the Pelathe Community Resource Center in Lawrence. Elbe plans have the new office open by Oct. 15.
"It's been a lot of work for them," she said.
The venture began about a year ago, when Eble attended an open house at the KU business school, where graduate students were on hand to help entrepreneurs.
"This is the beginning of what we hope will be an ongoing internship program," said Jeff Morrow, lecturer in small business and entrepreneurship for the business school.
The Kauffman Foundation eventually provided a $25,000 grant for a new office for Eble, which KU matched, Morrow said.
But all the office renovation, computer setup and marketing is being done by the KU business students as part of a class project.
"This is real hands-on -- you get real-life experience that is valid," said Lindsey Loreg, a KU senior from Topeka who was painting the new office Sunday. "You don't get this stuff out of a book."
While services such as the Audio-Reader Network allow people who are blind and visually impaired to hear books, the news and some advertising, the service doesn't include catalogs.
Eble is hoping to provide tapes for millions of people across the country who are blind or visually impaired.
She provides tapes for 37 catalogs and 16 cookbooks, including Land's End, Radio Shack, Schwann's foods, Spices Etc. and Puritan's Pride.
People with special cassette players are able to find descriptions of items in catalogs by fast-forwarding tapes to various tones.
"We work on trying to do a lot of projects like this," said Jason Taylor, president of Students in Free Enterprise, a KU student group that is providing 10 laptop computers and software for Eble.
People interested in Home Readers may call 1-877-814-READ (7323) for more information.
-- Michael Dekker's phone message number is 832-7187. His e-mail address is mdekker@ljworld.com.
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