Developing our own Apps
My husband Colin and I met when we both worked in IT many moons ago. We had only used an Apple Mac occasionally; our phones were 6 years old. However, a mission to write something usable, interesting and educational transformed us into mobile app developers.
Our first app, Special Words, was ready to launch by the end of Summer 2011. We found 16 iPhones, iPods and iPads owned by friends who helped us refine the app, with over 40 children testing it. Nathan volunteered to design our original branding, and others offered to help translate, initially into 8 languages.
In 2012, Barbara Lowe became our first employee, developing our branding, producing the artwork for the apps and photos for our website.
Our Journey So Far
We attended a conference hosted by Down Syndrome North East when William was about 3 months old. By chance, having queued for lunch, we sat at a table where we met a number of parents who were involved with The Education Centre for Children with Down Syndrome (ECCDS).
From when William was born until then we had been living in the RVI hospital in Newcastle, where he had undergone complex surgery, and it was the first time we'd met other parents of children with Down syndrome. Little did we know that the majority of the people at this conference would join our growing circle of friends as the years passed.