Early Life
Brandon Biggs was born in Spokane Washington and moved to Walla Walla Washington when he was eight years old. He participated in many blind camps and extra-curricular activities. He started his entrepreneurial journey at the age of six by selling baby hamsters to pet stores. He soon graduated to selling beaded key chains, then in Walla Walla, he sold eggs and lambs from his small family farm.
Brandon began using a screen reader at the age of twelve, and soon began listening to books from Bookshare. He was homeschooled until fifth grade, when he attended the local elementary school full time. At the age of thirteen, Brandon discovered his love of performing when he won a regional speech contest, and acted in a Missoula Children’s theater school play. At the age of fourteen, Brandon began acting in local theater and taking singing classes. During the first two years of high school, Brandon attended homeschool part time and public school part time.
At the age of sixteen, Brandon moved with his family to Mountain View California, where he entered the Middle College program at Foothill College where he completed his high school experience in 2010. During this time, Brandon participated in regional theater productions around the bay area.
University Life
When Brandon graduated high school, he continued attending Foothill college until he completed a music AA in 2012. It was during this time when he was introduced to opera and began singing.
In 2012, Brandon transferred to CSU East Bay where he completed his bachelors in music in 2016. During this time, he performed in numerous concerts, plays, and a professional opera production of La bohème where he played Colline. He also attended a year-long study abroad program in Italy where he became interested in business, authentic Italian cooking, and met his wife. He returned in 2015 to the U.S. and completed his bachelors in June 2016.
Professional Life and Graduate School
In 2015, Brandon started Sonja Biggs Educational Services (SBES), Inc. with his mother to provide visually impaired program services to K-12 schools. Brandon took the role of chief financial officer and Sonja took the role of chief executive officer. In August 2016, Brandon and his new wife moved to Malta where they lived for a year while she attended university. During this time, Brandon worked with his mom on building SBES remotely. In fall of 2017, Brandon began his master’s program in Inclusive Design at OCAD University remotely. He moved with his wife to the Netherlands where they lived on a houseboat for a year while she attended university. In the summer of 2018, Brandon moved to Italy with his wife where they lived with her parents for a year. During this year in Italy, Brandon completed his master’s program and received an offer to continue the work he did on his master’s project at the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute (SKERI). He accepted, and in August 2019, he moved with his wife to San Francisco and began working as an engineer at SKERI. At this point, Brandon was working part-time at SBES and part-time at SKERI. In the fall of 2021, Brandon and his wife moved to Atlanta GA where Brandon started his PhD in Human Centered Computing (HCC).