How We Got Here

Where It All Started

We tried the usual options and they didn't fit, so in our garage we built one with our child. They made it their own, and it taught us. When something doesn't work, you try something else and learn.

Three things came out of that garage that we're still building on: Oodesy AAC, free and child-designed; Argos, offline voice translation for children using their own voices; and Impact, to give as much life-changing technology as we can for free.

The first version wasn't perfect—it taught us how to get better. That's what led to Oodesy 2.

Understanding Their World

Oodesy 2.0 is where we built a way to understand what happened in their day when we weren't there, because they couldn't always tell us the way other kids might.

We wanted to know how they felt, how people treated them, and the things we'd otherwise miss.

We built daily reports and life-skills tools so they could learn about themselves—meals, routines, activities, emotions, everyday wins—while helping us understand their world when we weren't there.

What came out of it was daily reporting, life-skills tools, and the foundation of the parent experience.

What we learned is that understanding a child's day matters, but connecting that understanding to the people who care for them is where it becomes useful.

That led to Oodesy 3.

Bringing Everyone Together

We were fortunate to have therapists who cared about our child well beyond their sessions. They were spending their own time trying to understand what was happening at home and everywhere else. We built parent-provider communication and shared progress tracking because we wanted to make those jobs easier, not add to them.

What we learned is, even with everyone's good will, you can't expect every clinic or therapist to jump into a new system. That limit forced us to rethink the technology in Oodesy 4.

Breaking Down the Barriers

In Oodesy 4.0, we learned that getting everyone to communicate wasn't enough. Different systems, privacy rules, and endless games of telephone made it hard for parents, therapists, and schools to work together. So we built a way for parents to connect everyone, share information appropriately, and keep a child's world connected, even when others weren't using Oodesy.

We also tackled something every parent hates: filling out the same paperwork over and over. That became our one-click intake.

What survived: Parent-controlled communication, compliant information sharing, and one-click intake.

What we learned: The technology has to work around families, not force families to work around it.

A Different Perspective

Oodesy 5.0 had security work, medical expansion, and pilots moving forward. Then a small experiment with our child's communication device gave us a different perspective. Children loved interacting with it. Together with our head of product, we realized that experience could define Oodesy, not just support it. We had a product ready for pilots, but also a chance to do something different. So we chose to rethink the experience rather than settle for what we'd built.

What we learned: Sometimes the breakthrough isn't a new feature; it's seeing what you've already created from a different angle.

And that became Oodesy 6.0.