ATU784 – SpeechLabel with Freek van Welsenis

Hi, this is Freek and I’m the CEO of Hable, and this is your Assistive Technology Update.

Hello and welcome to your Assistive Technology Update, a weekly dose of information that keeps you up to date on the latest developments in the field of technology designed to assist individuals with disabilities and special needs. I’m your host, Josh Anderson, with the INDATA Project at Easter Seals Crossroads in beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana. Welcome to episode 784 of Assistive Technology Update. It is scheduled to be released on June 5th, 2026. On today’s show, we’re very excited to welcome Freek from Hable to talk about their new accommodation called Speechlabel. Let’s go ahead and get on with the show. For folks who’ve been listening to the show, you may know that back in April, we had our AT Awareness Day open house celebration here at Easter Seals Crossroads. This was a wonderful day with a really great turnout of folks that came in to tour our programs, learn more about our programs, touch, feel different assistive technology, get to try it out, both things for work, for school, for college, for home, for gaming, for music, for really all kinds of different needs.

We also realized that being here in central Indiana, not everybody can make it here in person. So in light of that, we also did a remote open house. So we opened up our Zoom room and basically gave a full tour as if someone was actually here for that open house. For folks who weren’t able to make it to either of those, we did record that entire open house and it is now available on YouTube. I put a link down in the show notes that you can easily get to the video. You can also get there through the INDATA Project YouTube channel. You can also search for it and we’ll make sure we have links on the website to get to it as well. But if you’ve ever want a little bit of a deeper dive of what does the INDATA Project do, what do the other AT programs here at Easter Seals Crossroads do and get to meet the amazing folks who provide these services every day, I encourage you to go check out the video.

It is about an hour long. So definitely set aside some time if you’re looking to actually watch the whole thing. But it gives you a very good overview of not just what is assistive technology. It also talks a little bit about Assistive Technology Awareness Day and the importance of this here in the US. But where it really shines is it gets to highlight the amazing people here on our staff, in the INDATA project, our clinical ATR home modification, as well as our Atlas project and getting to meet them, see some of the things they do, as well as just see some of the devices that are out there to meet the varied needs of individuals in the community. So if you’d like a great overview of our programs, a great overview of some of the assistive technology you’ve probably heard about on this show and really get an idea of just the amazing things, the amazing folks that I get to work with every single day are out there doing, please do go check out our video for the INDATA AT Awareness Day Open House.

Again, it’s not the same as being here in person, but it’s a whole lot less travel if you’re not in the area. So a link’s down in the show notes, go on and check it out. Listeners, this show is being released on Friday, June 5th, 2026. So I thought we’d start off today’s show by taking a little bit of a look back. So our very first show, ATU 001, dropped on June 2nd, 2011, or almost exactly 15 years ago today. So I thought just for fun, we would listen to that show. Now, it’s only about two minutes long and it talks about such amazing brand new assistive technology and technology things as turning your iPad into an iPhone. A brand new thing called Google Wallet about to come out, as well as the LookTel Money Reader and the amazing possibilities of optical recognition.

Things that we all just kind of take for granted these days that are already there, that are already available on a lot of our devices. But this is just a wonderful little look back to see where we started 15 years ago. Now, I, of course, have not been with Assistive Technology Update for the full 15 years. In fact, I started at Easter Seals Crossroads in August of 2011. So this show actually came out just a few months before I even started working for the agency and a few years before I was ever actually in the department. I have been hosting this show since I want to say August of 2018. But you know what? I’ll go back and check that sometime just to make sure. So for quite a while, but definitely not for the full 15 years. So enjoy this little flashback. Again, just a two-minute little blurb on some new technology, I guess at least at the time.

You’ll also notice the host sounds a lot different as this was Wade Wingler who founded the show and was the host until he handed those reins over to me. So again, thank you, Wade, for handing the show over for starting it up and hopefully we keep it going for at least another 15 years. Listeners, thank you, to our brand new listeners and to those of you who have been listening for the full 15 years. So let’s go ahead and start our show off with just a little flashback and the very first Assistive Technology Update.

Hi, this is Wade Wingler with the INDATA Project at Easter Seals Crossroads in Indiana. And this is your Assistive Technology Update, a weekly dose of information that keeps you up to date on the latest developments in the field of technology designed to assist people with disabilities and special needs. First off, have you ever wished that your iPhone had a larger screen, larger buttons, or other large print features for low vision? Well, iPad Islam is planning to release a new application designed to convert your iPad into an iPhone. This app is reported to allow you to make voice calls, FaceTime calls, SMS messages, and more. Although a jailbreak is required, this may prove to be a very promising telephony tool for people who are visually impaired. Ever wish you didn’t have to physically handle credit cards? Google has just announced a new service called Google Wallet that’s going to take advantage of near field communications technology.

That means that you’ll be able to pay for your gas, your groceries, and gadgets with your cell phone. For some people with physical challenges, this may open up a new way to independently pay for everyday goods and services. Speaking of money, did you ever wonder how people with limited vision can tell a $1 bill from a $5 bill or a $10 bill without sight or assistance? Well, there’s a new iPhone application from the LookTel group that does just that. For $1.99, you can download the Money Reader application that will quickly and accurately tell you if you’re holding a $1 bill or a $20. According to LookTel, this is just the first product in their plans. Imagine an application that you could use at the Food Court at the mall to determine the location of a Starbucks, a Burger King, or a Taco Bell. Object recognition is an up and coming technology, and we look forward to more developments in this area.

Want more? Find links to all this great new technology and check out our blog at eastersealstech.com or follow us on Twitter at INDATA Project. Until next time, this has been your Assistive Technology Update.

Listeners next up on the show, we’re very excited to welcome back Ale Gonzalez from BridgingApps with an app worth mentioning.

This is Ale Gonzalez with BridgingApps, and this is an app worth mentioning. This week’s featured app is called Doctor On Demand. Doctor On Demand is a virtual visit with the team of healthcare providers. Some of them might even be local to your area. Physicians for Doctors On Demand are all board certified. They have been screened and trained to assure they are well qualified to provide online medical care, receiving training in over 200 clinical protocols. This service gives you access to medical doctors practically every day of the year with one set fee for medical visits. The app is a very convenient way to help with common ailments such as urinary tract infections, skin and eye issues, and minor sports injuries. You can also ease your mind with some of the more worrisome concerns that can sometimes lead to trips to the emergency room, simply because you cannot get to your doctor in a timely manner.

Doctor On Demand is currently available for both iOS and Android devices and is free to download. For more information on this app and others like it, visit www.bridgingapps.org.

Listeners today, we are super excited to welcome the CEO of Hable, Freek, to Assistive Technology Update to tell us all about their newest solution, Speechlabels, and I, for one, cannot wait to hear more about them. Freek, welcome to the show.

Hey, thanks, Josh. Thank you so much for having me.

Yeah. Before we get into talking about this really cool new technology, can you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself?

Yes, of course. I’m Freek. I’m the CEO of Hable, the founder of Hable. I started this company around six years ago when I was still in my study, still studying at the university, and this company really came from a personal inspiration. I have siblings and people in my family with disabilities, and I love technology and Hable’s where both worlds came together. And where we started with a single product, we’re now bringing a lot of more affordable systemology to the market, and that’s what I’m here for. That’s what I’m here to do.

Awesome. Awesome. And that’s why we have you here today to talk about one of your kind of newest solutions, which is called Speechlabel. So I guess start us off with what are they?

Yes, of course. So Speechlabel, it’s a labeling solution. So what it is and how it works is it’s a combination of, on one side, physical labels and the other side an app on your smartphone. So the app is a free app on either iOS or Android, and the labels can be different types. So they can be NFC labels, which means you can access them by tapping them with your phone or QR code labels, so you access them by the camera on your phone. So how would this work? Well, for example, I have a sticker here in my hand and I wanted to use it to identify different spices in my kitchen. So for example, I would always mix up the oregano and the basil. What I’ll do is I’ll attach the sticker to the oregano. I will scan it with my Speechlabel app, so I just tap the sticker with my phone.

And then the first time I scan it, I can add information. So I can add a title. I can add a little bit of text saying, “Oh, this is oregano, this is basil,” or I can add a voice note. So if I add a voice note, I’ll save it. What happens is the next time I scan that same sticker, that same label, I’ll scan it with my smartphone. Again, by tapping it, all that information pops up. So the information that I wrote down will be written down and I can read it from my screen, or if I left a voice note, it’ll actually start speaking that voice note out loud. So it’s a way for me to identify things around me, which I normally would have trouble identifying. So how people use it is we see a lot of people who use it in the kitchen, and then it can be for spices, but also for leftovers for foods.

If you want to mark it, “Hey, I made this two days ago, so the date or what’s in there.” So you quickly can recognize when it’s in the fridge or in the freezer, what you made and when you made it so you’re sure that it’s still okay to eat. And another typical reason why people use this is for clothing. So we have special buttons that you can sew into your clothes. And those buttons you also scan them by just tapping them at your phone and you can add information. So this is my black T-shirt or this is my favorite jeans or even washing instructions. So only washes on whatever setting. So it’s just a way to label things around you. And it’s a rather affordable way because the smartphone is already there. That’s something most people already have and the app is free. So you just have one-off cost for the labels and then you can label anything around you.

That’s my quick pitch.

No, that’s perfect. And just a couple follow-up questions. I guess Freek, one is, are they reusable? So I’ve used one, I’m thinking of the leftovers thing. I’ve got it on my leftovers, but then I take them out. I realize they’re still good. Thank goodness. I bring them out. I eat them. Can I reuse that label?

Yes. Yeah, actually, and I would recommend you do. So the food is a perfect example. So I would say you would have this on little container. You can actually put that container with the label on it in the dishwasher. You can wash it off. It won’t come off. And then you can just, next time you put leftovers in there, you can just add and change the label. So you can just change it to whatever’s in there and you can edit it unlimited amount of time. So there’s no limit to how many times you can edit the labels.

Very cool. I know you said I could kind of leave a voice note. I could have text in there. I could have other kind of information. Is there kind of a limit to the amount of information? I mean, I just wonder, could I have a whole recipe or something like that, or am I limited, I guess, on how much information I can put on each label?

So I would be impressed if you reached the limit. I think there’s more than an hour of voice that you can record on a single label. And the text, honestly, I don’t even know if we have a limit. I’ve never seen anyone reach it. So yeah, you can put a lot of information on there if you want to.

All right. Well, good. Well, listeners, there’s a challenge for you. See if you can break it. But no, that’s absolutely excellent. And I guess we kind of talked about a few of the uses. Maybe what are some of the other kinds of uses you’ve seen folks use it for, or you guys have tried it with as you were setting it up?

Yeah, I think one of the… I can talk about one of the more unique ones I’ve heard recently-

Yeah, that’s [inaudible 00:13:54].

… but I thought it was very creative. I recently heard from a school in Belgium and where they use specially, so they have a photo album that they make every year for all the students, for all the things that happened. But for a couple of the students who were visually impaired, it was hard for them to see what’s on the album. So they made real life alt text. So they put the Speechlabel stickers next to all the images and the teachers would tell what’s happening on the picture, on the image. And then the photo book could be shared with all the students. And then there’s a text explaining them in the voice of the teacher what’s happening in the photo album, which I thought was a super creative way to use Speechlabel.

Because the reason you can do this, maybe it’s a good thing to mention is that you can set your labels to public.

Oh [inaudible 00:14:41].

So if I make a label and I put it public, actually anyone that scans that label can get that information. So you can make it so you can share it with others. You don’t have to. You can also put it private and it’s yours, but you can put it on public and then this works. So I think one of the cool use case, I’ve seen a lot of people who use it with collections. Think of your CDs, think of any type of collection where you want to just mark what everything is, where you got it, any information that you want to add. There’s people who use it for their groceries because you can. There’s one of the stickers, the tiny QR codes, you get them in packs of a hundred and I think it’s under $20.

So yeah, you can use it more as a consumable. Yeah, there’s a bunch more cases. There’s even, I know in more public spaces when people use it next to a coffee machine with instructions or next to meeting rooms with the numbers. So yeah, there’s a bunch of different reasons why people use it.

No, and you actually answered my next question, but I love that you can make them public because I was sitting there thinking, this is really great if I’ve got this, but if I’m at home and I’ve set it up and I’ve got it all on my phone and my wife comes up, she’s not going to know if those leftovers are good without opening them, smelling them, or God forbid, getting sick with them. So I love that I can share that information and then just anybody with the app can gain that same information that I put on there.

Exactly. And it’s really for us, we learned that there’s a lot of [inaudible 00:16:06] households with multiple people, but also for organizations. We ourselves have used it for our products where on the outside of the product, we put a Speechlabel with the manual on there. So we give a little personal voice note and a manual. So yeah, it gives us a bit more options like how you would use this and what you would use it for.

Very, very cool. I know you said that they can come in different packs and stuff. I know we’ve got the QR codes, the others. Are there different sizes and styles and what are all the different kinds?

Yes. So there’s four labels in total and they found two groups. So you have NFC on one side. NFC pretty much means that you just scan them by tapping them with your NFC scanner. So if you tap it, you scan it. For NFC, we have one, just a regular sticker. So that looks like a regular sticker. And then the other option is the button. So this is like a button you sew into your clothing. So of course it can also go in the washer and the dryer. That’s also why we pick the button because it’s super strong, sustainable. You can reuse it for other clothes at some point if you want to.

So those are the two NFCs. So sticker and button. And then we have two types of QR codes. The QR codes, we have thicker ones, which are epoxy based. They’re really like super strong, big. You can easily feel them, identify them, QR codes. And then we have tiny ones. And the tiny ones are a bit more consumable, so you can use them in many situations. They also look like regular stickers and they come in also in bigger pack sizes. So those are the four different labels that we have. And then we sell them as five different products.

So you can buy a pack with a single type of labels. All of them are in packs of 25 and the tiny QR codes in packs of a hundred, or you can get a startup pack. And a startup pack has five of each and then 25 of the tiny QR code ones. And that’s kind of like, “Hey, if you’re not sure which one is for you or what, it’s like the perfect way to test it out.” It’s the cheapest of the pack.

So you can try it all different labels, see which one you prefer, and then you can get that pack more of if you want to. That’s how we set it up.

Awesome. Awesome. Well, Freek, we love the different solutions you made at Able, really, and I know that you said you had some family members and a lot of technology. What brought about the idea to make the Speechlabels?

Yeah. So Speechlabel is one of those products actually that came to us. So there a bunch of developers in the Netherlands where we’re based who were working on this concept and they were doing a great job, but they just really struggled to bring it to the market and get it and to grow it and to scale it. So we started working with them because we really liked the idea and we started working with them. We made together, we made a little improvements and then we made it ready for the market. So it’s really an idea that came to us. And, to be fair, this happens all the time. We get most of the really good ideas, we get it from our customers, our users. They know much better than us, what they need. So we just try to follow up as well as we can on all the ideas and try to bring them to the market.

Awesome. Awesome. Well, Freek, while we have you here, just because I want, could you give us an idea of just some of the other great solutions that you all have there?

Yes, of course. So the first product we started with is called the Hable One and it’s a braille keyboard for your smartphone or tablet. It’s a little bit different than other build devices in the sense that you hold it actually in the air, so you don’t need to put it down. It’s almost like a game controller. That’s how you can imagine it. It’s a braille control that you connect with any phone or tablet, and it controls your voice-over for iOS or Android for talk back. And it essentially allows you for control and you can type in braille, which you can also control the screen reader of it. So most of our customers, they have their Hable One in their hands, they have their phone in their pocket and they just control the entire device like that.

Especially if you struggle with typing on your phone or if you struggle with the gestures, the onscreen gestures, Hable One can be a super interesting solution for you because it uses physical buttons, just as physical buttons, makes it a lot easier and a lot faster to type on the phone if you struggle with that. That is the product we started with. Over time, we also developed the Hable Easy, which is like a simplified version of the Hable One without braille. So you don’t anymore have to use any braille. It’s just one button for one function. And this is really for people who really struggle with the gestures on the smartphone.

It’s often people who lost their vision at a later stage in life or who have an additional motor impairment. For them, the Hable Easy can just make it very simple to use the phone. It’s like a remote control for your smartphone. That’s essentially how you can imagine it. And the next product is Speechlabel that we just talked about. And a month from now, we’re going to introduce a new product, which I can already talk about, which will be Stactiles. And Stactiles are a very … How I can best describe them is they’re 3D-printed stickers.

Okay.

So they’re like the next generation of bump dots, but then with super, super sharp details. So we have, in total, there will be 12, or there will be 10 different designs ranging from individual little braille stickers all the way to a kit that’s there to make your washing machine or your dryer Tactile by the use of the stickers on your washing or drying machine and utility based. So that’s the next product that will come out, I think, a month from now.

Awesome. Awesome. Well, we can’t wait to see it and wait to get to try that out as well, because we definitely do like the things that you do. And I know you’ve always had, I don’t know, the mantra, the way of making things really affordable for folks as well. I guess what led you to just make that a mission of Hable as you all make these solutions?

So when I started Hable, I just was focused on the Hable One, the braille keyboard, but over time I realized that there’s a lot to be done. And in our domain, there’s so many challenges, so many things we can improve. And luckily there’s also a lot of brilliant people working on a lot of these problems. But what I noticed and what my team noticed is that most people who work on assisted technology work more in the super innovative, more like really high end products. So think of the multi-line braille displays, think of the CCTVs. These are all really complex products that are also very costly because of that. And I think all these companies are doing an amazing job and I’m very happy to work on it.

But we realized that not that many people are focusing more on the really day-to-day assistive tech and trying to innovate more in the really affordable things you can just buy on the spot assistive tech. There’s not that much innovation there, but it’s equally needed. And I also think there’s a lot of people who would really benefit from… Think of the stickers, like the Stactiles. It’s a very simple product. It’s really hard to manufacture. It took us years to figure out this manufacturing thing, but it’s a really affordable way to make a regular household appliance accessible.

Instead of having to buy a whole new microwave that can talk, you can just make the microwave you already know and make it accessible with tactility. And I just think by innovating in this area, we can hopefully assist a lot of people in making their daily life just a little bit easier. So that’s why we just saw there was a gap here and we decided to jump on it.

And I think that’s great because you’re still meeting needs. You’re still helping folks overcome barriers. You’re still making assistive technology. It doesn’t always have to be the fanciest, most expensive thing. And I really liked how you mentioned that Stactiles, well, it sounds like a simple thing. It took forever to figure out how to actually get it to work.

Yes. Oh, it was. It has been a journey. It’s funny how the simplest things are often the hardest. Just it took us a long time to get this right and to get a product that is this simple, but the manufacturing is so complex. A single sheet takes like seven hours to print.

Oh my gosh.

Yeah. And then it would go [inaudible 00:24:15], yeah, it’s been a fun journey.

Oh, sure, sure. Well, but you want to make sure you definitely do it right because this is something that’s going to allow people to access things like that. So I mean, if you do it wrong or incorrectly or too fast, I mean, not only do you lose their faith, but you’re also, they’re going to spend their hard earned money, even if it’s not very expensive, on something that’s not going to meet that need and they’re going to have to go and find something else too.

Exactly.

So yeah, it is important to take your time and make sure you’re finding the right way to be able to do it, even if there are those bumps along the way and those pitfalls you don’t see coming.

I agree. I agree.

Yeah. Well, awesome. Well, Freek, if our listeners want to find out more about all these great solutions about Speechlabels, about Hable One or everything else, what’s a good way for them to be able to do that?

Yeah. The best way to find everything about our products is to visit our website and our website is imhable.com. So I’ll quickly spell it. It’s I-A-M-H-A-B-L-E.com. That’s our website there. You can find anything. We do work with most of the vendors in the United States for our products. And you can also find most of our products on Amazon, so that also should be convenient. But I think our website is definitely the easiest way to find us. Also, I can imagine if you listen to any of this, you might still have a lot of questions like, “Is this really for me?”

You can always reach us on our website. And we’re also very honest if we think it’s not a fit for you because we don’t really like products ending up with people who cannot use it in the end. So if you’re not sure, just ask us and we can see if it’s the right fit for you.

Awesome. We’ll put all that information down in the show notes so that folks can easily find it. Freek, thank you so much for coming on today for telling us about Speechlabels and some of the other great solutions there at Hable that are out there to be able to help folks with their needs.

Well, thanks so much [inaudible 00:26:00]. Just really, really enjoyed it.

Do you have a question about assistive technology? Do you have a suggestion for someone we should interview on an Assistive Technology Update? If so, call our listener line at 317-721-7124. Send us an email at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org or shoot us a note on Twitter @indataproject. Our captions and transcripts for the show are sponsored by the Indiana Telephone Relay Access Corporation or INTRAC. You can find out more about INTRAC at relayindiana.com. A special thanks to Nicole Prieto for scheduling our amazing guests and making a mess of my schedule. Today’s show was produced, edited, hosted, and fraught over by yours truly. The opinions expressed by our guests are their own and may or may not reflect those of the INDATA Project, Easterseals Crossroads, our supporting partners or this host. This was your Assistive Technology Update. I’m Josh Anderson with the INDATA Project at Easterseals Crossroads in beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana. We look forward to seeing you next time. Bye-bye.