The Freedom Reader
--Read, Think, Contribute!
Our Mission
To provide a set of tools to help the visually impaired read and exchange printed material as easily as sighted people.
Our Vision
An evolving, vibrant online community sharing ideas, a world in which the visually impaired have some measure of equity in the community of ideas.
John with Lisa and Nathan
Mark with Jahna
Who We Are
Two brothers who enjoy working together, in part, because they share a fundamental understanding that creativity is rarer than intelligence or education and the fundamental force animating all great ideas.
John and Mark have designed and built many projects over the years, including a "jet ski," a go-cart, and a holography setup. Most recently, they designed, built, and delivered the Electronic Eyelid to a young boy who had lost his ability to blink due to a brainstem mass. For this, they won an honorable mention in the History Channel's Invent Now Challenge.
John Kahrhoff is an electrician and an official in the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local #1 in St. Louis, MO. The Freedom Reader originated in his mind, and he is the architect of the electronic design and the builder of the Freedom Reader. John is the designer of a modular wheel chair ramp that he volunteers to build for people stricken with ALS ("Lou Gehrig's" Disease). He also designed and built a submission to the Sikorsky "human powered helicopter" competition. He volunteers most Saturdays with our mother at St. Louis Children's Hospital, is a student of American Sign Language, and a pilot.
Mark Kahrhoff is an optometrist practicing in the US AIr Force at Keesler AFB, MS. He wrote the Freedom Reader Word Processor Program and he and John work closely on the code that operates the Freedom Reader itself. He is a published author and vision scientist whose work has been funded by Sigma Xi/National Academy of Sciences and the University of Missouri. Mark is the founding optometrist of the specialty contact lens service at Keesler Medical Center, the director of the student extern program, and a frequent contributor to the National Keratoconus Foundation Patient Information Service.
