Sign-Speak has arrived in Boston, as a Techstars Company!
We made our move from Rochester, NY earlier this month. All of us at Sign-Speak are excited about the move, and are looking forward to the chance to communicate with local Deaf and Hard of Hearing (D/HH) communities and businesses. As a reminder, Sign-Speak is a real time sign language recognition technology that allows for translation between sign language and english, and vice versa. This is why Nikolas (Niko) Kelly, in particular, is eager to connect with local leaders and influencers as he is interested in getting to know Boston’s D/HH community’s particular concerns, and how Sign-Speak can best help enable authentic communication for Signers and their families.
None of this would have been possible without the support of Techstars Boston and their amazing team Greg Raiz, Jennifer Davis and Simone LaPray. Sign-Speak is one of twelve startups chosen by Techstars Boston as part of their mission to support businesses that will “change the way we live and work.” Sign-Speak’s leadership and mission embodies the very values that Techstars seeks to promote, such as our desire to change the way the world communicates with some of its most overlooked populations. Techstars' continued devotion to diversity, both among the companies it accelerates and in the leadership of those companies, means a great deal to us. Sign-Speak is Deaf, Black, Latinx, Women, and LBGTQ+ owned and operated, and we were fortunate that Techstars chose Sign-Speak to be the first company they accelerated with a Deaf founder. We couldn’t have been happier to accept their support.
Moving forward, we will bring our very best A-game to Boston, and are in the process of reaching out to universities, hospitals, small businesses, and community centers that serve the D/HH community. For the foreseeable future, we want to ensure that the D/HH community in Boston is better served with a technology that enables their most authentic communication methods. We are continually improving our technology to best serve the needs of the D/HH community, and Sign-Speak believes that there is no better place for us right now to carry our mission forward than Boston. You are the reason why we can continue to advance communication.
Sign-Speak knows that its technology is only worthwhile if it can serve the D/HH community. It is with that in mind that we want to reach out to everyone in the greater Boston area to reach out to us if you find our technology at all useful to you or the communities you serve. Schools, Hospitals, Libraries, Community Centers, Restaurants, Hotels, and so much more are the bedrock of our communities. We believe that everyone should have equal access to those institutions. If you are a member of the D/HH community, and you would like to use our technology when going to the store, then we are here to help! Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us for any reason. You, and people like you, are the reason Sign-Speak exists.
