InnoYouth is a youth-led initiative raising awareness of eye diseases and expanding access to inclusive educational resources through bilingual education, community partnerships, and student-led action.
InnoYouth is a student-led community initiative based in Orange County, California, connecting Braille and tactile learning materials to students and schools who need them, and raising awareness of rare eye diseases through accessible, bilingual education.
We measure what we do — tracking the reach of every donation and partnership — so we can find where the gaps are and focus our efforts where they matter most.
What can we do today to help those losing their sight?
The simple, urgent question our journey began with.
We're a youth-led team working on three fronts:
What began with a personal effort to find resources for someone close to Ashton has grown into a broader effort to connect people and organizations with resources that might otherwise never reach them.
Long term, we hope to help connect rare eye disease patients and researchers through data and shared knowledge. That's still an early, aspirational goal — today, our concrete work is Braille book access, awareness content, and impact measurement.
Accessible learning materials and clear information about rare eye diseases are harder to reach than they should be.
Braille and tactile learning materials often sit unused in one place while students who need them go without.
Donors, schools, and families who could help each other often don't know the others exist.
Accurate, accessible information about rare pediatric eye diseases is hard to find, especially across languages.
These gaps mean resources go unused and families go without answers. We're here to change that — one connection, one story at a time.
Our work centers on three simple goals: raise awareness, expand access, and put students in the driver's seat.
We collaborate with eye disease organizations and professionals to create accurate, accessible, and bilingual educational content.
We help connect braille books, tactile learning materials, and inclusive educational resources with organizations that can use them.
We give students meaningful roles in research communication, storytelling, accessibility, outreach, and community service.
A closer look at the work our programs are producing right now.
InnoYouth helped put braille and tactile books — originally produced by Sensee — into the hands of students who need them. WithOn9 held these books in inventory; we made the case for donating them, then matched the donation with Orange County United Way, an organization equipped to distribute the books directly to blind and low-vision students.
What's next: We're reaching out to more publishers and organizations willing to donate braille and tactile materials, so we can match more donations with the students and schools who need them.
View Acknowledgment Letter (PDF) →
View WithOn9 Letter of Appreciation (PDF) →
Recognition: Orange County United Way highlighted this donation on its official LinkedIn page.
We're in early conversations with a rare eye disease patient advocacy group in Korea about co-developing a bilingual (English & Korean) awareness series — short videos and card-news content covering rare pediatric eye diseases, reviewed by medical professionals before publication.
What's next: Finalizing scope and agreement with our prospective partner before development begins.
Continuing the Braille Book Access Project, InnoYouth matched another batch of braille and tactile books — produced by Sensee and held in inventory by WithOn9 — with the Philippine Literacy and Technology Project, coordinated by the Rotary Club of Historic Filipinotown. The books are headed to MS Library and Learning Center in Passi City and underserved schools in the Miag-ao district of the Philippines' Visayan Region.
What's next: 32 more schools in the Miag-ao district are still waiting for library resources — we're working with the Rotary Club to plan further deliveries.
We received a handwritten thank-you card from the Rotary Club team on delivery day.
InnoYouth matched another batch of braille and tactile books — produced by Sensee and held in inventory by WithOn9 — directly with the Blind Children's Center, a Los Angeles organization that has served blind and visually impaired children since 1938. Ashton delivered the books in person to Scott Kasell, the Center's Director of Development and Communications.
What's next: We're following up with the Blind Children's Center on how the books reach students and families, and exploring whether further deliveries make sense.
Our largest delivery yet. InnoYouth matched 2,343 boxes of braille and tactile books — produced by Sensee and held in inventory by WithOn9 — directly with Braille Institute, the renowned Los Angeles nonprofit serving people who are blind or have low vision. It took the largest trailer WithOn9 has, in three trips over a single day, to get it all there. Ashton met Scott Ogden, Braille Institute's Supervisor of Shipping Operations and Media Support, on site for the delivery.
What's next: This delivery brought WithOn9's braille and tactile book inventory down to roughly 2,000 books remaining (about 1,000 English-language and 1,000 Spanish-language) — we're now looking for the next organization equipped to place what remains.
Finding a recipient was only part of the challenge. The large collection was not organized in a way that made outreach easy, so InnoYouth members first worked to turn scattered inventory information into usable lists of titles, book types, and quantities.
Many of the books also included specialized Braille, tactile, and interactive features that were difficult to explain through a spreadsheet alone. Team members filmed short videos demonstrating the books and showing how they could be used, giving potential recipient organizations a clearer understanding of the materials.
Under founder Ashton Jung's leadership, InnoYouth members then researched schools, libraries, nonprofits, Braille literacy programs, and organizations serving blind and visually impaired children across the United States. The team built contact lists, divided outreach responsibilities, sent emails, made calls, followed up, and asked organizations for referrals when they could not accept the books themselves.
One of those referral chains eventually led to Braille Institute.
Our biggest delivery by far. InnoYouth matched 2,343 boxes — 46,860 braille and tactile books — produced by Sensee and held in inventory by WithOn9 — with Braille Institute, the well-known Los Angeles nonprofit serving people who are blind or have low vision. At $16 per book, that's $749,760 in educational resources now in their hands.
It took WithOn9's largest trailer, running three trips from 7am to 5pm in a single day, to get every pallet there. Ashton met Scott Ogden, Braille Institute's Supervisor of Shipping Operations and Media Support, on site to hand off the delivery and hear about the Institute's library and programs. This is our fourth completed delivery from the Braille Book Access Project — see Featured Projects for the full story, including our deliveries to Orange County United Way, the Rotary Club of Historic Filipinotown, and the Blind Children's Center.
This delivery brought WithOn9's remaining braille and tactile book inventory down to roughly 2,000 books — about 1,000 English-language and 1,000 Spanish-language.
In a September 8, 2026 letter, Lisa Lepore, Senior Director of Library Services at Braille Institute, thanked Ashton for "organizing and coordinating" the donation through his work as President of InnoYouth and his connection with WithOn9.
"One of the largest gifts of books to the Library in Braille Institute's 107-year history — if not the largest."
— Lisa Lepore
Senior Director, Library Services
Braille Institute
"Your donation will have a tremendous impact."
View Official Letter →Five steps guide every project, from first idea to finished delivery.
We look for real problems and the resources needed to solve them.
We confirm accuracy and need with experts and partners.
We connect companies, organizations, students, and experts.
We carry out deliveries, campaigns, content, and events.
We record outcomes and lessons learned, transparently.
Every project brings together a different kind of partner. Here's how we group them.
Reviews the medical and educational accuracy of our content. A patient-centered precision medicine platform founded by a legally blind tech executive and a medical scientist from Seoul National University.
Logo pending permissionDonated the braille and tactile books featured in our Braille Book Access Project, making its inventory available after being approached by InnoYouth.
Logo pending permissionA rare eye disease awareness and advocacy initiative based in Korea. We're in early conversations about a potential collaboration on the Vision Awareness Series — nothing formalized yet.
Visit eyelovechild.com → Logo pending permissionPartner logos will be added once permission is granted by each organization. Partnerships marked "In Discussion" are still being finalized.
Ashton H. Jung · Founder
Troy High School, Fullerton, California
Ashton's connection to vision loss is personal. Three years ago, Dr. Jason Choi, a longtime family friend Ashton has known since childhood and considers much like an uncle, was diagnosed with a rare eye condition. As Dr. Choi's vision progressively deteriorated, Ashton began researching specialists, medical institutions, organizations, and other resources in the United States that might be helpful.
That experience revealed a problem that would later shape InnoYouth: useful resources often already exist, but the people and organizations that need them may have difficulty finding one another.
Ashton founded InnoYouth to help make those connections. What began with awareness of visual impairment and rare eye conditions has grown into student-led projects connecting educational resources, organizations, and communities.
Meet the rest of the InnoYouth team — coming soon.
We keep our impact numbers honest — here's what that looks like right now.
A few highlights from our journey so far.
From our first delivery to Orange County United Way on July 18 to our largest yet at Braille Institute on July 30, InnoYouth matched over $765,000 in donated braille and tactile books with four organizations in under two weeks.
Whether by volunteering your time or partnering with us on a project — every action helps connect resources with the people who need them.
Collaborate with us on projects that directly help patients and families — such as contributing braille books, educational materials, or other resources.
Partner With Us →Join our outreach team and help us raise awareness — through design, events, storytelling, and more.
Volunteer with Us →InnoYouth is a student-led initiative expanding access to educational resources, raising awareness of rare eye conditions, and documenting our impact along the way. Every volunteer and partner helps us reach the next student, family, or organization that needs support.
InnoYouth is a youth-led initiative connecting Braille and tactile learning materials to students who need them, raising bilingual awareness of rare eye diseases, and measuring our impact with data.
You can join us as a volunteer, partner with us on a project — like providing braille books or educational materials — or simply spread the word. Everyone has a role to play in making an impact.
Whether you're a potential partner, a volunteer, or just have a question — we'd love to hear from you.