BeAware Founder Saamer Mansoor is using his technical talent to make the world more accessible.

His award-winning Detroit-based startup will be exhibiting at CES® 2024 in Las Vegas this week. So far, Saamer and his team have created four mobile applications for Deaf and hard-of-hearing communities.

And he hopes everyone will make use of his free and open-source app, DeafAssistant, and give him feedback.

DeafAssistant, Saamer explains, allows Deaf and hearing people to communicate easily, through texts and emojis. The app also alerts Deaf users to sounds: either selected ones, such as a baby crying, or an alert, such as a siren or fire alarm.

In addition, BeAlert, who’ll be in CES® 2024’s Eureka Park® startup area from this Tuesday, January 9th through Friday, January 12th, offers apps for conferences, family gatherings and healthcare.

Just prior to our pre-recorded conversation, Saamer learned that BeAware’s HealthScribe application had won first place in the Henry Ford Health System Innovation Challenge and will be used in Michigan hospitals! (Congratulations again to Saamer and his team!)

Saamer shared the story of BeAware, offered a closer look at his company’s applications and explained why BeAware really is an app for Deaf and hearing users alike.

On this edition of Over Coffee®, we cover:

• How Saamer first became interested in creating apps;

• A closer look at BeAware’s four apps: HealthScribe, Family Gatherings, Conference Live Captioning, and the free and open-source Deaf Assistant app;

• The story behind the creation of the Deaf Assistant app;

• A discovery the BeAware team made, while researching this particular app;

• An experiment they’ll be doing at their CES® booth (Booth #60464, near the startup stage in Eureka Park®!);

• Some of the capabilities of the Deaf Assistant app;

• How a tech-news forum helped with research for this app;

• A “phone call” capability on the app;

• Some of the honors which BeAware recently won;

• Saamer’s future vision for BeAware’s innovations.

• What the team needs most now, for support;

• How Saamer first decided to use his talent to create mobile apps for accessibility;

• His future vision for BeAware.