A blind woman in Halifax is asking anyone who's seen her special mobile device that helps her read and communicate with the world to please return it.

The device and another piece of electronic equipment that cost almost $4,000, disappeared this month during a stay in hospital.

Barb LeGay said her machine is similar to a Blackberry, but for people with visual impairments. It and another device were in a cloth tote bag when she said they went missing.

"It's possible that the bag got tossed into the laundry chute. However they process laundry, that it could be over in the laundry ... Of course you don't want to think that people who are in the hospital, either as visitors or as patients or staff, would actually take something like that. So, that was the second possibility and we’ve tried as best we can to pursue that," she said.

Among other things, the mobile device, known as a Braille Plus 18, allows LeGay to take an image of a document and then read it in braille. The device is also a phone and a GPS.

"I even took my white cane and swept it under the bed to see if it would come out," said LeGay.

Peter Graham, a spokesperson for the hospital, said staff have looked numerous times for the bag and have alerted security.

"They've been in touch just as recently as today, with again, security and food nutrition and laundry and housekeeping to verify if they've come across it and none have seen it," he said.

LeGay said the device won’t be useful to others, "but it does me so much good to have it."

She is pleading with anyone that may have her device, to please drop it off anonymously at any Canadian National Institute for the Blind.

Graham said there is a possibility that the missing device could be covered under the hospital’s insurance policy but he said that is not guaranteed and claims are reviewed on a case-by-case basis.