Ted Henter

Technology and Mathematics

Ted HenterTed Henter co-founded Henter-Joyce in 1987, motivated by the desire to develop JAWS, Job Access With Speech, to provide access to computers for blind or visually impaired people. By the late 90's it was the most widely used screen reader in the world, today being used in 18 different languages. Ted always tried to recruit blind people to fill jobs, thus 40% of the 75 employees were blind or visually impaired.

Henter-Joyce merged with two other assistive technology companies in 2000, to form Freedom Scientific. The new company offers a broad line of products and services for people with disabilities. Their goal is to expand computer and opportunity access on an even wider scale. Ted serves on the Board of Directors and remains involved in an advisory role.

Henter Math was founded in 2002 in order to make mathematics accessible to people who are pencil-impaired, i.e. can't operate a pencil effectively. This includes people that are blind, motor-impaired, or learning disabled. The first product, VP Arithmetic, was released in May of 2003, and VP Algebra was released in the fall of 2004.

Ted was born and raised in the Panama Canal Zone, received a degree in engineering from the University of Florida, and married his high school sweetheart Mel. They now have three daughters and live in St. Petersburg, Florida. He was pursuing a career in world championship motorcycle road racing when he was blinded in a car accident in 1978 at the age of 27. His faith in Christ helped him through a short period of despair, realizing that God would not give him something he could not handle. He enrolled in several computer courses at the University Of South Florida and focused on becoming a computer programmer. By 1981 he was developing some of the first talking computers for blind people in the emerging assistive technology industry.

Ted remains active in sports, regularly participating in snow skiing, water skiing, canoe racing, and martial arts. He was the 1991 World Champion for Blind Water Skiers, and six times the US champion. He has competed in ten Ocean to Ocean Cayuco (dug-out canoe) Races through the Panama Canal, and has a brown belt in martial arts. He serves on the Board of Directors at The Watson Center for the Blind and assists two Panamanian charities and their blind students.