WayAround is thrilled to welcome Neva Fairchild, MS, as the Director of Business Development. Neva will work closely with the WayAround leadership team to expand WayAround for Public Spaces.
Neva has over 30 years of professional experience providing vision rehabilitation services and a lifetime of personal experience living with vision loss. She worked for the American Foundation for the Blind for over 15 years before retiring in July 2023. Most recently, Neva oversaw the activities of the Fellows & Mentors in the AFB Blind Leaders Development Program. Prior to AFB, Neva worked for the State of Texas and the Dallas Lighthouse for the Blind, Inc. She serves as Past President of the Association for Education & Rehabilitation of the Blind & Visually Impaired.
Since the early days of WayAround, Neva has served as an advisor and offered strategic direction about features and the needs of people living with blindness and low vision. “Neva’s guidance has been invaluable in making WayAround what it is today,” said Darwin Belt, co-founder and manager of WayAround. “Her personal experience with vision loss coupled with her professional expertise makes her uniquely qualified to make more places accessible in a way that truly benefits people with sight loss.”
Initially, Neva will work with blind training centers, schools for the blind, and other organizations that have a large number of employees and customers with sight loss. She will also work on pilot programs with companies in various industries that want to enhance accessibility beyond compliance.
WayAround for Public Spaces provides orientation information about physical locations and items – it’s like alt-text for the physical world. Through the free WayAround mobile app, visitors can access detailed descriptions of rooms, available features, assistive technology equipment, and more. Installing WayAround allows visitors to be more independent, and saves valuable employee time.