VIP Online Toastmasters Blog

When Casey Mathews was a kid in Daytona Beach, Fla. public schools, reading was a struggle. Born three months prematurely, his survival was accompanied by the same casualty as so many others who received extra oxygen: he was not able to see. At least, he was not able to see much.

Until he was 13, he had enough vision "to be dangerous," as he puts it—recalling tales of bike flips and near misses—but with concentration and determination, he could manage to read enough of that pesky print to survive. Then, on the brink of adolescence, after a dozen or so eye surgeries that all ultimately failed, the miniscule amount of eyesight he possessed was gone.

High school was when Casey first got introduced to a computer and was immediately captivated by the fact that it could talk. As he says on his company website: “I heard the computer talk and it changed my world forever.”

For a while, Casey taught access technology in Daytona Beach, and did some work for Serotek and a Florida paratransit company. Upon attaining a degree from the University of Phoenix in 2004, Casey began working working as a rehabilitation teacher for the Lighthouse of Central Florida in Orlando. In 2007, the Lighthouse hired Casey fulltime as an access technology instructor and in 2008, he received his bachelor’s degree in information technology.

Since that first computer in high school, Casey Mathews has had a passion for the power of technology, particularly as that power enhances the quality of life for people who are blind or visually impaired.

Once he discovered the Internet, online shopping, tools for navigation, the ability to research, and on and on, he loved not only figuring out how to use everything, but sharing that knowledge with others as well. Over the last 20 years, he has been a technology problem solver for people in all walks of life, and eventually, his dream of working for himself evolved.

A few years ago, he set up his online training and troubleshooting business, Web Friendly Help. His plan was to find a way to offer the power of access technology to others, for work and play, but to do it at a price that individuals could afford. His solution is a subscription-based platform. You can sign up for a month, a quarter, or a year, and the prices are a mere fraction of what other trainers might charge. If you want weekly lessons on how to use NVDA or VoiceOver, or if you just want someone to rescue you when you are on deadline and can’t figure out how to use a particular website, your membership puts help within the manageable reach of an email or phone call.

When Casey took that entrepreneurial plunge, he established Web Friendly Help as an LLC, using his own computer savvy to do all of the legal registration and filing himself. He built his website with WordPress and then began spreading the news by word of mouth. Since Casey and Judy Mathews, his wife, are both blind and users of access technology themselves, they were connected with other groups of blind people and potential customers.

Growing any business is a challenge, but when vision loss is part of the mix... let's just say it's an interesting adventure. Mastering technology came relatively easily for Casey, but he realized that he needed to polish his presentation skills to help him promote his business. Thanks to his friend Patty Fletcher, Casey heard about Toastmasters and specifically a Toastmasters club dedicated to serving blind and low vision individuals. It wasn't long before Casey was contacted by VIP Online Toastmasters.

Toastmasters teaches the Soft skills which set you apart from artificial intelligence: Effective communication, creativity, emotional intelligence, collaboration, persuasion, time management… These are the human attributes which make you, you! It's also what every entrepreneur needs!

It’s about the way you speak, how you carry yourself, and often times what you don’t say, how you communicate using your own body language. These are a universal language and in play 24/7.

VIP Online Toastmasters strives to make the Toastmasters' club experience easily accessible to blind and low vision persons. The club's goal is to help anyone empower themselves so they can achieve their goals.