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Show Notes
Imagine needing another person’s hand just to check the weather, news, or even to listen to a podcast. That’s the everyday reality for many DeafBlind people and the starting point for Samantha Johnson’s bold solution: a soft robotic hand that fingerspells tactile sign language and turns digital text into language you can feel.
We sit down with Samantha to trace the journey from a Northeastern University ASL course to founding Tatum Robotics, a social impact startup bringing assistive devices into real homes. She explains how her team engineered an 18-DOF hand that is both precise and gentle, and why co-designing with DeafBlind users consistently beats feature creep. We are also joined by Jaimi Lard of Tatum Q&A for a live demo of the device and firsthand user feedback.
If you care about accessibility, human-centered design, and robotics for good, this conversation will recalibrate what meaningful inclusion looks like.
Meet the Guests
Jaimi Lard
Quality & Testing
Tatum Robotics
Jaimi Lard is a champion of accessibility for the DeafBlind community. At Tatum Robotics, Jaimi works in quality and testing, providing insightful information that continues to guide product direction.
