Help Luther Fund a Blind Accessible Broadcast Setup

A company contacted me about a two weeks ago to assist a gentleman named Luther King learn how to use a sound board that he purchased from them.

I was informed that Luther is fully blind and wanted to use this board to do broadcast for local high school sporting events.

Luther and I met at his house last Monday in order to setup his sound board. I quickly realized that he needed a lot more than just a walkthrough on his new equipment.

I learned that Luther had a bag full of gear and cables that he would bring to each game and would rely on help from a volunteer or someone sitting near him to help him setup his broadcast equipment every time.

While he explained to me his process of getting everything setup, I racked my brain on how I can help him avoid this overcomplicated and difficult process. While we talked through his setup, he also shared a little bit of his story with me.

Luther is 39 and lives at home with his mom who is his sole caregiver. She works as a food preparer at a hospice care facility. I could tell by the condition of their home that it was a low income situation and I knew that any sort of solution I could come up with to help Luther was going to cost a little more than they would be able to afford. I am determined to help Luther figure this out and get him the equipment he needs to do this thing that gets him out of bed in the morning. After leaving his house, I made a GoFundMe and short video telling my instagram following a little bit about Luther’s story. Within 24-hours the GoFundMe was fully funded with almost $700 extra! It was such a blessing to call Luther and tell him that he didn’t need to worry about the cost and that it was taken care of for him. Luther and his mom were blown away that people would be willing to rally behind his story and help him get what he needed.

I ordered everything in as quickly as I could and stayed up late to build it, as Luther had a game he wanted to broadcast coming up that Friday. I met him at the field on Friday and was going to help him and his volunteer spotter learn the rig and then take head home. I realized about 30 minutes before the game that his volunteer was not going to show up and I decided to stay and help him. I am very good at running and setting up sound equipment, but sports is definitely not my strong suit. I called my wife who grew up in a household of football fans and asked her to come be Luther’s spotter. It was an amazing experience helping this man do something that sounds impossible, a blind man commentate and announce what was happening on a football field. Luther needs more than just new equipment, he needs consistency. He needs people who can show up for him regularly to accomplish his dream. My wife and I have decided that we are going to show up for Luther at his games to help him as often as we can. After the game, there were a few things I noticed that were extremely difficult for Luther. The first thing is his computer. It is a Dell computer that is at least 10 years old. It is not very accessible friendly and it had multiple issues when trying to turn it on. His computer is definitely on it’s last leg and should get replaced with a MacBook that has accessibility features built into it. I also learned that he is using an iPad to run all of his ads and audio clips. His iPad reads out-loud what is happening on the screen “play” “pause” “the time is currently…” in seri’s voice which all goes directly to the live stream. There are a few pieces of gear that would eliminate this for him and allow him to easily run his broadcast without everyone hearing his iPad's voice-over. I updated the GoFundMe to try to raise an additional $1800 to get him a new laptop and the additional gear he would need.

This will help Luther get the tools he needs to accomplish his dream and possibly turn it into a job to support himself with. If any money is raised in excess, I want to give that to Luther and his mom to help them with any at-home needs they may have.