“Your beliefs become your thoughts,
Your thoughts become your words,
Your words become your actions,
Your actions become your habits,
Your habits become your values,
Your values become your destiny.”
~Mahatma Gandhi
Everything that is created starts with an idea. A thought enters the mind and sometimes that thought passes like a vehicle on the highway, and sometimes “it hits you like a Mack truck.” Sometimes it’s like a slow moving train, and the mind lingers for a little longer. But sometimes the idea floats along like that feather in the movie Forrest Gump. It’s a constant slow passing that seems to follow us and even when we move, it shows up again, prominently and insistently, so it never really passes. We start to get comfortable with its presence and we sit with it and give it our attention. It takes our mind down the path of possibility and soon everything is a reminder of this idea.
Our ideas become our words. We start to talk about them with people we trust. We start to weigh the pros and cons of acting on them and when we decide that there is so much more benefit that could come from taking action, our words become our actions. If we don’t take action, the consequence of ignoring an idea is that it often transforms into regret.
The actions we take become our work, and when work and passion connect, it becomes a mission. When we decided to create Speak for Yourself, it was created out of an idea, a little spark that maybe it was possible. There were children we would see everyday who needed a clinically sound Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) system on an iPad, and at the time there was not one available. These children were not given a chance to be evaluated for devices. They were underestimated and “the funding was not available” for evaluations or costly devices, but the iPad was affordable and available. Parents and speech-language pathologists were “making it work” because it was better than nothing.
Speak for Yourself was released three-years ago on December 21st, 2011. We were at the height of Christmas preparation. We had completed it, and Speak for Yourself was uploaded to iTunes. We thought that we would have to wait until after the New Year because Apple closes down for a little more than a week at the end of the year. Our plan was to finish the year relaxing with our families and hoping that Apple would approve it and it would be available to the public in January 2012. When the email came through that it was approved, and we could release it whenever we wanted, there was a quick phone call, and a very short deliberation when we decided to release it immediately.
To celebrate our three year anniversary, we wanted to share some of the sentimental things we have held onto so this is a little bit of a Speak for Yourself scrapbook.
When we had the idea that we could design our own AAC app, we started talking about it, then we decided that maybe we should write some of our ideas down, so we did. Then we thought it might be helpful to have a blueprint so that it was easier to explain to people who were not familiar with AAC. Our most proficient computer skills were in PowerPoint, so we sat together in Panera Bread and designed the initial blueprint in PowerPoint. Here is a picture of the main screen in our PowerPoint file.
You’ll notice that it originally had 88 buttons on the main screen. Months later, when we met with the developer to discuss the interface, he had a rough prototype of the main screen. One of the options for the edit box was that it could pop up on the right side of the screen and move all of the buttons over. When he showed us that option, and all of the buttons squished together, Renee and I simultaneously looked at each other with wide eyes and said, “That button size will work!” The developer had no idea what we were talking about as we attempted to calculate how many more columns of vocabulary we could fit on the main screen. He didn’t realize that he just allowed our app to hold approximately 6,000 more buttons than we originally planned. We were ecstatic and he said, “Well, what do you think about the edit box?” Obviously, the edit box ended up being a popover instead of moving the screen around, and now -three years later- when we see something that wasn’t intended, our developer is not at all surprised.
When we saw the initial design of the screen, it had numbers on it, and when you touched the buttons, the numbers changed. One of the requirements that we had for our “AAC language app” is that we wanted it to be fast. We didn’t want people to have to wait for the screen to re-draw when they were trying to express their thoughts. When we pushed the button and the numbers changed, the developer said that was the speed that it would be able to switch screens. The transition was instantaneous compared to current apps and we realized that this could actually happen as we held the tangible evidence in our hands. It was like looking at the first ultrasound of your new baby. It doesn’t have all of the features visible yet, but there is movement. Speak for Yourself had the flickering of a heartbeat.
(Aren’t you glad we didn’t keep the obnoxious orange?:)
Obviously, buttons with fast changing numbers were not going to be enough. We needed words…A LOT of words! While we knew the 119 core words we were going to use on the main screen, we also knew that we wanted to program as much as we could so that our “AAC Language App” could have a large vocabulary right out of the box.
We also had to think of a name. Renee and I would text each other with suggestions. When we had the right name, it would resonate and there would be that moment when we just know. That moment came when we heard “Speak for Yourself.” We wanted it to be a name that people could remember. A name that conveyed the independence and confidence that we wanted the individuals who use it to exude. I was explaining it to my sister and mom and I said that we want them to be able to speak for themselves and my sister said, “Why don’t you just call it that?” I said, “What? Speak for Themselves?” As we switched pronouns and I said, “Speak for Yourself,” there was that moment of resonance. It had the confidence and clear message that we wanted, and as an added bonus, it had a little bit of attitude. I called Renee and said, “Speak for Yourself?” as soon as she answered the phone and she said, “I love it!”
Now we had a name and the framework was coming together so we started researching symbols and text to speech engines for the voices. The symbols had to be friendly, but not too childish. Our intention was for children and adults to be able to use it. With motor planning at the center of the app’s design, we knew that people would be able to learn regardless of the symbols we used. After phone calls and Skype calls to other countries about symbols and voices, we decided on the Smarty Symbols, which were created by a speech language pathologist, and Cereproc voices.
When the symbols arrived, there was a list with the categories and the number of symbols in each category. As we looked at the list, we decided that we could group each category under a main screen core word. This gives Speak for Yourself the best of a category and core-word based system. There are no files to navigate, but words within the same category will be on the same page. We spent the better part of five solid weeks programming. I am more of a night owl and would program from the time my children went to sleep until about three in the morning. We would program separately, but Renee would wake up around that time and she would program until her children woke up for school. Then we would go to work in the morning. Here are some notes from our initial programming ideas.
There are times that I look back on parts of my life and think “How did I do that?” And that is one of those times. Sometimes the only answer is that we do what has to be done. The thought that motivated us, the speech we would give ourselves when we were tired or when we paused to look at the long path still ahead, was that we were going to give people a way to express themselves that is affordable, reasonable, and that makes sense from a language and communication perspective. It was going to be life-changing.
The good news is that we were right. It is life changing. Thousands of people are able to communicate because they are using Speak for Yourself. They are able to generate their own thoughts and they are able to let people into their world. They can express interests that were never programmed into their previous AAC systems. They can use Speak for Yourself because they don’t get lost in page navigation and layers and layers of vocabulary. Children under two years old and adults working full time jobs or attending college classes are using it to generate independent communication. It has changed lives.
The part we focus on less is that it was also life changing for me and Renee. We were unbiased speech-language pathologists, AAC consultants and evaluators who loved doing AAC evaluations and working with schools to increase the use of AAC and working directly with students to teach them to love communication. For so many, success depends on teaching that it is worth learning to communicate. If you can motivate a child to want to learn, he has the capacity to figure out the system. We go into each new interaction with the expectation that the child will communicate if we can find the right thing to teach. We are no longer able to do evaluations because we’re biased, but we are fortunate to continue to support teams and students in their AAC journey.
Shortly after Speak for Yourself was released, a lawsuit was filed against us, and we spent the better part of the next nine months in litigation. Litigation is taxing emotionally, physically, personally, and professionally. It pulls on every relationship you have. Even when you win in litigation, it is not without scars. When you have been through a lawsuit, you are wiser, more determined, less trusting, and more thankful. When you have fought with all you have to protect something, you appreciate it for its mere presence. Fortunately, the lawsuit was settled over two years ago. Speak for Yourself is on the market, strong, and ours.
Since then, Speak for Yourself has undergone 10 updates and version 2.0 is on the horizon. As we reflect on this path, we think of the many people who have traveled this road with us. There are people who have been there from the very beginning, and their belief in us and Speak for Yourself has never wavered (that we know of anyway). There are people who have passed in and out of our journey…people who were there to be strong when we were at our weakest. There are people who we have never met but feel like we know well. And there are very few who stepped into our path to throw nails on the road, and we went around them and continued.
For whatever part you have had in our journey as you read this, thank you for being here. (Even the nail throwers because you raised our awareness). When people ask us about creating an app and we look at the road, with all if its bends, bumps, detours, and cliffs, the part that shines the brightest is the beautiful successes we have seen along the way and the friends we never would have met without Speak for Yourself. If you can get past the rough spots, you can take a feather of an idea and grab it tightly enough to protect it keep it with you, but with enough tenacity that you don’t ruin it. When that happens, it is life-changing, and Speak for Yourself is a dream come true.
We wish you a warm holiday season, filled with bright ideas, memorable moments, and the courage to begin taking action.
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