Building With the Community, Not On Behalf of the Community: A Unified Approach for Speech-Language Pathologists and Tech Developers
When it comes to creating communication solutions for individuals with speech disabilities or other communication challenges, the community should be more than just a stakeholder—they must be at the core of the process. Whether you’re a Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) or a tech developer, the most effective and empowering tools are built with the community, ensuring their needs and insights guide every decision.
Collaboration between SLPs, developers, and the community ensures that individuals are not passive recipients but active participants in shaping tools and therapies. Here are four guiding principles, to help you build solutions that keep the community at the core of your work.
1. Collaboration: The Community as an Integral Part of the Team
The most impactful innovations are created through deep collaboration, where the community is not just offering feedback but actively shaping the solution from the start. When developing communication apps or therapy techniques, it is important to include people with speech disabilities as key contributors. Their firsthand experiences provide invaluable insights, guiding the design and functionality of the tools to ensure they address real-world challenges.
This collaborative approach often involves working closely with users who experience communication challenges, integrating their feedback at every stage of development. By openly sharing their struggles and preferences, users help refine key features, ensuring the solution meets their specific needs. Co-creating with users ensures the final product enables effective communication in daily life, evolving to be both intuitive and responsive to their needs.
Actionable Step: Include individuals with communication disabilities in your development and design process from the beginning. Their input should shape core features and functionality, ensuring the solution aligns with their day-to-day communication needs.
2. Personalization and Flexibility: Innovating Solutions That Fit Individual Needs
No two individuals have the same communication needs, so personalization is key to making a tool or therapy effective. Whether it’s a communication app or a therapy plan, solutions should offer flexibility and customization to adapt to the specific needs and preferences of the person using it.
Customization can allows tools to be tailored to include vocabulary, settings, and features that reflect the user’s personal life, preferences, and abilities. Input from users and professionals ensures that solutions are adaptable to different communication styles and motor abilities.
This level of customization allows users to build a communication interface that is truly unique to them, supporting their independence and enabling them to engage meaningfully in their daily lives.
Actionable Step: Work closely with the community to identify customization options that best serve their needs. Whether it’s flexible settings in an app or adaptable therapy goals, these should be designed with individuals in mind, allowing them to shape how they use the tools.
3. Ongoing Feedback and Adaptation: Let the Community Guide the Evolution
The role of the community doesn’t end once the initial product or therapy is developed. To ensure communication solutions remain relevant and effective, it’s important to create a feedback loop where users can share their experiences and suggest improvements over time. This ongoing collaboration helps refine and adapt solutions to better fit evolving needs.
Through ongoing engagement with the community, user experiences can provide critical insights into how solutions function in various aspects of daily life, from personal relationships to professional interactions. Feedback can guide the development of new features, enhance existing tools, and ensure that solutions remain intuitive and accessible. By incorporating these updates, devices can become more intuitive, user-friendly, and tailored to evolving communication needs.
Actionable Step: Create easy-to-access channels for user feedback, whether through in-app feedback features or regular check-ins with therapy clients. This ensures the solution evolves with the person’s needs and remains effective over time.
4. Empowerment Through Independence: Fostering Self-Reliance
The ultimate goal of any communication tool or therapy is to empower individuals to communicate independently. By involving the community in the development process, you’re more likely to create solutions that truly enhance autonomy. When users help shape the tools, they become more intuitive and accessible, fostering greater self-reliance.
Accessible technology designed with user feedback can significantly improve users’ ability to overcome challenges in both learning and daily life. Features that address specific needs—such as facilitating easier reading, writing, or comprehension—help build confidence and open doors to further educational and professional opportunities.
Actionable Step: Focus on simplicity and user control when designing communication tools. Engage the community to ensure the solution is intuitive and empowers users to navigate it independently. This approach fosters confidence and a deeper connection to the tool.
Key Takeaways for SLPs and Tech Developers
- Make the Community an Integral Part of the Team: Building communication solutions with the community ensures the final product addresses real, lived experiences.
- Customization Drives Success: Personalization allows each individual to tailor the tool or therapy to their specific needs, making it more effective.
- Continuous Feedback Fuels Improvement: Regularly adapt your solution based on user feedback to keep it relevant and effective as their needs evolve.
- Design for Independence: Tools should be intuitive and empower users to communicate on their own, fostering confidence and self-reliance.
By integrating the community into the core of your development and design process, you ensure that the solutions you create are not only practical but empowering. Whether you’re an SLP or a tech developer, the real innovation comes when you build with the community, not just for them.
About the Author
Jourdan Saunders, Speech Language Pathologist, CEO of The Resource Key, former competitive gymnast, and recognized as a LinkedIn Top Voice for Equity in the Workplace, empowers leaders with innovative marketing strategies to create sustainable systems for accessible digital experiences for all, including people with disabilities and older adults.
With a proven track record of working with brands that have secured over $20M in funding, Jourdan leverages her unique perspective from living with Aphantasia—a condition where individuals cannot visualize mental images. This personal insight drives her commitment to creating a more inclusive digital world. Her shared resources, tools, and innovative solutions have reached over 2 million people across more than 300 organizations, and she has a following of over 50,000.
Her talks on inclusion and accessibility resonate widely, driving impactful discussions and actions. From healthcare to tech, she advocates for change, contributing to initiatives like Brookfield Properties' 'Partner to Empower' and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)'s 'Planet Positive 2030.
Contact Information
The Resource Key Email: info@theresourcekey.com
Jourdan’s Email: jourdan.saunders@theresourcekey.com
The Resource Key Website: www.theresourcekey.com
Jourdan’s Portfolio Website: www.jourdansaunders.com
Social Media Links
Twitter: Jourdan Saunders (@JourdanSaunders) / Twitter
Instagram: Jourdan (@jourdan.saunders) • Instagram photos and videos
LinkedIn: Jourdan Saunders, MS, CCC-SLP (she/her) | LinkedIn
Website: Jourdan Saunders
