We come to you
Assessment and training happen where the technology will actually be used: the classroom, the office, the kitchen table. Not a showroom.
About Lab Computers
Founded in 1992. Family owned, now in its second generation, and one of HumanWare's largest distributors in the United States.
How we got here
Lab Computers started in 1992 as an ordinary computer business, founded by Brian Goemmer's father. What changed its direction was a customer.
One of the early clients was a call center that employed a large number of people who were blind or had low vision. Brian spent time working alongside them, and what he learned there reshaped the company. The move into assistive technology did not come from a market study. It came from knowing the people who needed it.
In 2000 the company became the exclusive HumanWare distributor for Kentucky. That territory has since grown to four states, and Lab Computers is now among HumanWare's largest distributors in the country.
Years of work with a state vocational rehabilitation center surfaced a further gap: people who are blind or have low vision are often underserved by general employment services. The vocational rehabilitation center asked Lab Computers to take a more active role, and that work now runs through Employment LAB.
Along the way
- 1992
Founded
Started as a computer business in southern Indiana.
- 1990s
A change of direction
Work with a call center employing people with visual impairments turned the business toward assistive technology.
- 2000
Exclusive HumanWare distributor for Kentucky
The beginning of a relationship that still anchors the business.
- Today
Four states, second generation
Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and Michigan, and among HumanWare's largest distributors in the United States.
Who you will be working with
Brian Goemmer holds a Master of Arts in Education (MAEd) and is a Certified Orientation and Mobility Specialist (COMS). That credential matters more than it might appear on a supplier's website.
Orientation and mobility is the discipline of teaching people to move through the world safely and independently after vision loss. It is a teaching background, not a sales one. It means the first question is always what you are trying to do and what is getting in the way, rather than which product carries the best margin.
Brian works directly with teachers of the visually impaired on Individualized Education Program (IEP) goals, and with vocational rehabilitation counselors, employers and families across the four-state territory.
His sister, Rhonda, is working toward her own certification and will be joining the business. She currently runs Employment LAB.
At a glance
- Founded
- 1992
- HumanWare distributor since
- 2000
- Ownership
- Family owned, second generation
- Based in
- Southern Indiana
- Serving
- Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and Michigan
How we work
The task comes first
A device that does not fit the person, the room or the job is not a solution, however capable it is on paper.
We stay reachable
Questions come up weeks later, not on delivery day. You get the same person on the phone.
Employment LAB
Employment LAB grew directly out of this work. Where Lab Computers supplies the technology, Employment LAB works with job seekers and employers on the employment side of vision loss. Two organizations, one family, the same problem approached from both ends.
Visit Employment LABTalk to us
Whether you are buying for yourself, for a student, or for a program, the conversation starts the same way.