ATU803 – Befabulous Technologies with Chinny Odimega

Hi, this is Chinny Odimega. I am the founder and director of Befabulous Technology, 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 Easterseals Crossroads in beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana.

Welcome to episode 803 of Assistive Technology Update. It is scheduled to be released on October 16th, 2026. Today’s show, we are super excited to welcome Chinny Odimega, founder and director of Befabulous Technologies, to the show. She’s here to tell us about how she started Befabulous Technologies and the Befab app, as well as some other really cool stuff that she’s working on. We’re also joined by Ale Gonzalez from BridgingApps with an app worth mentioning.

Listeners, we thank you so much for listening and realize that without you, we do not have a show. So remember, if you ever have a question, a comment, or perhaps someone you’d like to hear on the show, please do reach out. You can send us an email at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org or call our listener line at 317-721-7124. As always, thank you so much for taking time out of your day to give us a listen. Let’s go ahead and get on with the show.

Listeners, we thank you for listening to this podcast, but we have tons of other content that you can check out. I’ll put a link down in the show notes so that you can access the INDATA YouTube channel. So on our YouTube channel, you will find weekly tech tips that come out every single Monday. These tech tips are usually either by members of our staff or by our partners out there that make all this amazing assistive technology. And it’s a short little two, three, four, five-minute demonstration of maybe some of the main features or how the device is able to help folks. You’ll see a lot of the devices that you hear about on this show as well. So if you are looking to get a small demonstration, a little tech tip, if you will, check out our tech tips over on our YouTube channel. I’ll put a link to it down in the show notes or you can search INDATA Project on YouTube.

Also, don’t forget, this is not our only podcast. We also have ATFAQ, or Assistive Technology Frequently Asked Questions. On this show, we take the questions that come in from you, our listeners, and other folks around the community and try to answer those on air. What else is really great is we have a lot of folks that actually call in and give us the answers, because we sure as heck do not have them all the time. So you can check out ATFAQ wherever you found this podcast or wherever you like to get your podcasts. And don’t forget there’s tons of other content and amazing information available over at Eastersealstech.com.

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 web app is called IEP Says. IEP Says is an AI-powered tool that helps parents understand their child’s individualized education program, or IEP. Parents can upload their child’s IEP and receive a plain language breakdown of the goals, services, accommodations, and other important information. The app can also identify areas to ask questions about and help parents prepare for their next IEP meeting.

Our favorite feature is the way IEP Says turns a complicated document into information that is easier to understand and act on. It can generate questions, recommendations, and a printable meeting guide, helping parents feel more prepared and confident when advocating for their child. IEP Says is available as a web application and is free to get started with optional paid features.

For more information on this app and others like it, visit www.bridgingapps.org.

Please join me, listeners, in welcoming Chinny Odimega to the show. She’s the founder and director of Befabulous Technology and creator of Befab. And I know that it’s going to be a fabulous time finding out more about everything.

Chinny, welcome to the show.

Thank you, Josh.

Yeah, thank you so much for taking time out of your day to join us. Before we get into talking about the technology, could you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself?

My name is Chinny Odimega. I live with a speech difficulty. And I decided to start my company when I got turned down by a lot of jobs that I was qualified to do, so I decided to build my own technology. And I said to myself, “If they are not going to include me, I’m going to build my empire and include myself.”

That’s awesome, yeah. If they’re not going to see the worth and the talents, then I’m very glad that you took them elsewhere and are still able to use them.

Well, Chinny, that brings me on to Befabulous Technology. I guess start us off by just telling us what is it?

Befabulous is the software that I am building. So it’s a voice assistant that is going to turn into a device. I am still working on the device, but it’s just like having your own voice assistant, but this time, it’s built with a voice that is not standard speech. So it is built for people like me, tremor and stroke survivors. And we are still in our early stage. We are based in the UK, and as time is going, we are bringing this innovation to US because we know that when it comes to disability and inclusive technology, US is very welcoming in this subject.

Yeah, no, it is. And I know that is a challenge. For virtual assistants, anything voice input if you don’t have the standard speech, I guess what it would consider. It always plays to the middle, I guess a little bit.

So when we’re talking about Befab, and I played with it just a little bit, what are the different ways that I can communicate with it?

So Befab is built with my voice model. I’m still in the second stage of trying to pilot and test user with stroke. But it’s built with assisted touch for nonverbal users. And it can also dictate when you’re struggling to speak, which brings us to the medical part of Befab. It has the tendency to detect signs of stroke to the voice. Let’s say you’re in your home, one day there is a difficulty in your speaking or it can just notice the change in your voice. There are future for intermittent alarms but with concept first.

Nice, nice. So I know one issue at least with folks I’ve worked with and some of the needs that you’re talking about is if I’m trying to use a voice assistant, when there’s pauses, when there’s anything, it either tries to do the task it thinks it’s supposed to do or it comes back with, “I can’t hear that,” or, “I don’t understand.” With Befab, if I have pauses or anything like that, how does it respond so that I know it’s still listening, still working, or doing those kind of things?

So with my, what I am dealing with. So let’s say you got, it is built to have patience.

Oh, nice.

So instead of saying, “I didn’t get that,” the response the user is going to get is, “Keep going and listening.” So it’s built more on empathy than profession.

No, that’s great. And empathy and patience are things that I think we skip as we build technology for different things.

Chinny, I know, like you said, it’s still being developed and everything’s still working, but I guess just for listeners, what all kinds of things will Befab be able to do as a voice assistant?

It’s going to have the touch button for the nonverbal and it’s going to have the camera or touch for sign language users. And then the AI building language is where the artificial intelligence does the good work that it should be doing. I believe that AI should be used for good. So the artificial intelligence should be able to learn how the users speak. So one day, if there is a problem, so one day if the user is having difficult trying to say, “I, I, I, I,” so it can dictate that and ask for concept to raise an alarm for help.

Nice, nice. I like how there’s so many different input methods, being able to recognize sign language, other kinds of ways, but then also the AI being able to learn from that individual, because any kind of speech difficulty is going to be different and probably affect people even differently depending on the time of day, how they feel, but the fact that it’s able to work with them is an absolutely great feature.

Chinny, how long have you been working on Befab?

Well, I have been working on this project since September. I had to do collaboration with some organization in the UK, because it’s a lived experience, so I know what to do and I have some background in technology. So I know what I wanted to do. And why I decide that we need that, the world really needs this is because I think of the rising number of kids that are nonverbal. Since after coronavirus, the number of kids who are either nonverbal, neurodiverse, or autistic rose so high. There are lots of kids that need this. And I said to myself, “I don’t want them to go through the kind of thing I went through as a child.”

And how has Befab changed and progressed over the time you’ve been working on it, maybe from your original idea to where it is now?

Ideas come and go. Before, there was no… I didn’t think of the sign language in the beginning. And I just wanted to make an AAC device in the beginning. But as AI has come, there are softwares. Google is doing so well producing software that you could train with your voice, and the facial intelligence is growing. There is going to be more of this to make Befab better than it is now.

Yeah. It’s amazing how fast technology is really moving, and it’s great that there’s folks out there like you trying to make sure that it stays inclusive and that it’s able to just do really great things. I know when I first discovered assistive technology, I wasn’t even that much into tech until I really saw how it could make a difference.

Well, Chinny, as I was looking at everything, I saw that besides just Befab, you’re involved in other things, just making sure that AI and other stuff really stays inclusive. Did you want to talk about that a little bit and maybe some of the other things that you’ve been able to be a part of or help work on?

Yeah. I mean, I believe innovation, without inclusion is injustice. It’s your building and it can, you know, putting this of people or neurodivergent people inclusive in what you are building so we can do more a better place.

Besides Befab, I am also working on another AI that could detect signs of human trafficking before it goes on. And because I build my company on inclusion, I am trying to make sure that AI doesn’t do the same thing that the internet and the computer did when it came out. When computer and the internet came out, they promised to connect the world. They promised to change the world, but they left a lot of people behind. And AI is doing the same thing again. It’s going to leave so many people behind, especially those with disability and those that are neurodivergent. So what I’m trying to create is more awareness, more digital inclusion.

And the reason I’m trying to bring my innovation to the US is that you guys are so excited. You guys are so excited when it comes to innovation. The few times I have reached out to US company, they are so excited. They’re like, “Oh, Chinny, we really want to meet you. We really want to…” Everyone is so… I have never seen people that are so excited for change, for innovation, for growth, for justice.

So yeah, I just wanted to share something that I also work on again. It’s called AI Without Borders.

What’s that?

So it’s an inclusive AI hackathon that I am working on. So in this hackathon, we bring people with lived experience and we bring engineers or anyone interested in building tech, and then we write code. And then we write code, we put our brains together, and see what we can build. But this time, we are building with our business and we are building with our patient in the room, in the same room.

Awesome. Well, Chinny, I hate to say that I’m glad some of those companies decided to push you away because it sounds like it just drove you to be able to make a change so that that doesn’t happen to other folks, and be able, like you said, to just make sure folks don’t get left behind by technology, especially folks that it seems like sometimes folks don’t think about as they’re developing stuff. But I love that the experience has changed and now you’re actually seeing a willingness, and not just a willingness, but an excitement to really make these things, to make all things, I guess, in technology and be able to include a lot more folks.

Chinny, if our listeners want to find out more about Befab, about Befabulous Technology, what is a good way for them to do that?

Oh, we got our website. You can connect with me on LinkedIn, Chinny Odimega. And if you’re interested in learning more about our work and if you just want a partner and if you want to give us more input on what to do, I will really acknowledge that because I’m building most of these with my lived experience, but it’s not just on me. It’s on listeners like yours. If you got some gut feeling or some instance telling you, “Oh, she could do this, she could do that,” please reach out to me on LinkedIn. And our website is Befabuloustechnology.co.uk. We are based in the UK, but as we are growing, we want to be in the US. This time, we’re enlisting investors encouraging… They are excited. They are pushing for change. And this is why we are reaching out to listeners like you. No one deserves to be left out. We are going to be a bridge and we are going to carry on to the future.

Thank you.

Nice. Yeah, and we will include links to the website, your LinkedIn and everything in the show notes so that folks can reach out and maybe talk about the challenges and struggles they’ve had, because it sounds like they definitely have someone in their corner who can help them out with different technologies and everything else.

So Chinny, thank you so much for coming on the show today, for talking about not just your experience, but also the great work that you’re doing. And we can’t wait to see where it goes, especially as you find new partners and are able to really expand your reach. So thank you again so much for coming on.

Thank you. And I just want to say if you believe in inclusion, if you believe that we could build a better inclusive world for our kids to don’t have to feel lonely in the class because they cannot speak, as anyone deserve a chance in life, if you’re an angel investor or you’re a disability investor or you’re an organization that love the work with us, please reach out to us as well.

Thank you very much.

And thank you.

Do you have a question about assistive technology? Do you have a suggestion for someone we should interview on 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 Nikol Prieto for scheduling our amazing guests and making a mess of my schedule. Today’s show was produced, edited, hosted, and thought 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, and 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.