Noel Runyan was a guest on Voice of the Voters! on March 14, 2007.

With his degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Noel Runyan has been working in human-factors engineering for over thirty-five years, primarily developing access technologies to help persons with visual impairments use computers and other electronic devices. During the five years he worked for IBM, he was involved in the design and testing of the security systems for both BART ticket machines and ATM credit card systems.

After starting his own company to supply access technologies, he designed and manufactured the Audapter speech synthesizer, to enable computers to talk to visually impaired users. Noel also authored the EasyScan, BuckScan, and PicTac programs, which made it easier for visually impaired users to read print books, identify dollar bills, and convert print pictures into raised-line tactile drawings.

To help their visually impaired customers gain access to and make use of computer systems, Noel and his wife, Deborah, have personally built hundreds of custom-integrated personal computers with speech, Braille, and large-print interfaces. More recently, he has been involved in the development of talking internet radios, talking pill bottles, and other medical equipment for persons who have difficulties reading print labels and displays.

Noel Runyan authored the report Improving Access to Voting, published by Demos and Voter Action.