VisuALS won’t be celebrating its 5 year anniversary in April. The founding members chose to dissolve the business effective December 31, 2021. Despite the best efforts of the management team, a series of unfortunate events convinced us that there wasn’t a viable path forward for the business.
When that reality became clear, I think all of us involved in the business felt a sense of loss, even a sense of failure. We certainly failed to provide a financial return for our investors. However, as my wife reminded me, Janice Phelps would never let us call VisuALS a failure, and neither would the many other families touched by VisuALS. The company’s mission was to “Love our neighbors by restoring independence, dignity and hope through affordable assistive technology solutions.” The company lived that loving mission from beginning to end.
But we want even more families to be blessed by the VisuALS technology. Therefore, we are working towards open sourcing the VisuALS software. Doing so will allow anyone to download the software for free. Open sourcing VisuALS will also enable developers around the world to continue to enhance the software and provide new and improved capabilities. We believe that the VisuALS mission can outlive the company.