When Tracy Beavers co-founded the first commercial internet service provider in Alaska in the early 1990s, she was part of a movement that connected people to unprecedented opportunity and information. Decades later, as founder and owner of Tolt Technologies in Duvall, Washington, she is again building connections. This time, the bridge links eye-gaze communication devices and powered wheelchairs, unlocking independence for people who cannot move their bodies but can reliably move their eyes. In a sector where technical precision meets deeply personal impact, Beavers has emerged as a tenacious and thoughtful leader.
For readers who may not be familiar with your company, how do you describe it? What led you to create Tolt Technologies?
Tolt Technologies makes Ability Drive, a product that allows complete wheelchair control via eye movements. The device is designed for those who are locked in and can’t move at all or who have a condition like cerebral palsy and move too much, but they can reliably control their eyes.
About 80% of people using this technology also use an eye-gaze device for speech, using their eyes to look at keys on a screen to type, enabling them to speak and communicate with the world around them. Our ‘drive-by-eye’ system uses eye tracking and wheelchair controls to drive a chair by looking at arrows on a screen. It serves as the link between the eye-gaze device and the power wheelchair. We work with as many speech-generating devices and wheelchairs as possible so people can use the equipment they already have.
The company came about when the former New Orleans Saints football player, Steve Gleason, who now has ALS, stated that he could do all sorts of wonderful things with his eye-gaze device, but he is ‘stuck.’ He could communicate, but he could not independently move.
Gleason’s comment made an impression on me. Discussing it with my spouse, we realized that this was something very important for people to have available, but it didn’t fit the model of an investable business. So, we took a second mortgage on our house to fund its creation. As a family-owned business, we can focus on bringing this solution to the people who need it.
The Beavers family.
Tracy Beavers and her daughter, Alyssa, in Japan for an exhibit of the Ability Drive technology.
Jay and Tracy Beavers at the first business location for Tolt Technologies in Duvall, Washington.Tell us about your manufacturing process.
We are an American-based manufacturer, and most of our manufacturing is done in-house here in a small rural town, Duvall, Washington. We use 3D printers to make many of our parts. Parts that need high-end machining are also manufactured here in the United States. Our electronics are manufactured and assembled in Portland, Oregon, and Chicago, Illinois; those have to be done by a very specialized team, but we oversee the entire process.
I handle the business side of the company and also all travel for shows and conferences. My husband, who oddly enough works for me, oversees all the engineering. Our oldest son, Joshua, runs all the printers and does the mechanical engineering work. We have two more full-time employees: Austin Howell handles technical support and testing, and Shea Ako does much of our software and electronics design. Â
Because our product is a safety-critical system, every change must go through what we call a ‘full test pass.’ That test pass is a month-long process of someone sitting in the chair and driving with it in a very controlled fashion. Making a change, even something that seems simple, is a really big lift for us. Such a change is not only a commitment at the beginning; it is a responsibility for the product’s entire future.
Your market is relatively small. How do you view that challenge?
The number of individuals who need this technology is very small, which is a good thing. But even though it isn’t a large number, the need is undeniable. Our goal is for the person who needs the technology to be successful very quickly. They experience many frustrations in life, and the helpful equipment can be complex as well. We did not want our driving system to be one more layer of complexity. I have people at shows who have never sat in a wheelchair or used an eye-gaze device, but they can drive through a door in under a minute using Ability Drive. It is really simple to use. That is our goal.
Would you share some of the positive experiences of Ability Drive users?
A 17-year-old with cerebral palsy has always used a manual tilt-in-space chair. When she got Ability Drive, she felt independent for the first time. She was so excited that she could go places by herself.
I was recently talking to an occupational therapist who has a 5-year-old patient going to kindergarten and is using our system to move himself to his classroom. No longer having to depend on a caregiver to push you to a group of friends is life-changing.
We have little guys as young as 3 using our product. The earlier you get kids moving, the better their developmental path.
You often speak about being a bridge between disciplines. What does that mean in practice?
We have a foot in both the speech device and wheelchair worlds. There is funding for speech devices and funding for wheelchairs, and then there is us. Typically, most physical and occupational therapist know little about speech devices, and speech therapists know little about wheelchairs. That has probably been one of the more challenging parts of the business, being that connector and saying, ‘I know you are speech, but now we need to work with mobility. And I know you are all about mobility, but now we need to understand this eye gaze device.’ This is a learning curve for folks. Assistive Technology Professionals are used to joysticks, switches and head arrays. Now we add this computer with an eye-gaze camera, which needs to be configured for each person.
How did your past experiences equip you to create and lead Tolt Technologies?
I grew up in a logging camp in Alaska. It is a very self-sufficient culture. You have to do whatever needs doing. I was in the computer science program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in the ‘90s when I met Jay Beavers. We realized that people in Alaska should have access to the internet and decided that, with my computer programming knowledge and his engineering know-how, we could make it happen. And we did! We established PolarNet, the first internet service provider in Alaska. I believe that you keep working on the problem until it is solved.
After Jay and I married, I paused my career to have a family and raised seven children. If you have seven children, you always have a whole lot of plates in the air. I often say that God was training me well to run a business. From 1997 until 2020, when I founded Tolt Technologies, I homeschooled all of the children.
Among many other things, homeschooling taught me a lot about individuality. There are so many ways to accomplish a goal, and you have to keep thinking and being creative until it works. Some children learn by doing, some by reading and some by hearing. You meet them where they are. That translates directly into what we do now. Every client is different. Not a single one is the same.
What continues to drive you?
The knowledge that a little bit of technology can make an immense difference in someone’s life. Ability Drive gives an individual the capability to join a group, to leave a room when angry and to have some autonomy. I felt strongly that we needed to bring this product to market. Even though the market is small, it matters. These people and their families matter.
In an industry that demands both regulatory rigor and human empathy, Tracy Beavers embodies both. Her path from Alaska pioneer to assistive technology innovator reflects a consistent theme: See a need and keep working the problem until you find a solution.
Tracy may be reached at tracy@tolttechnologies.com.
Tracy Beavers established Tolt Technologies (https://www.tolt.technologies.com) in Duvall, Washington, in 2020. The family-owned company manufactures Ability Drive and has distributors in the U.S., Argentina, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, and throughout Europe. The innovative system is an eye-gaze-based powered wheelchair control system. Beavers has a Bachelor of Science from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and, with her husband, Jay Beavers, she co-founded PolarNet in the mid-1990s, the first internet service provider in Alaska.