Communication and/or language difficulties can arise at birth, develop over time or strike suddenly following a health incident. In any of these cases, an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) tool is invaluable for establishing or maintaining quality contact with others. François Liger and Fanny Oliveira have dedicated themselves to developing and making this crucial resource available, choosing Brussels as the base for their company, Lemma Factory.
Because almost 100 million people worldwide face communication challenges. Because in French-speaking Belgium and France nearly 2 million individuals are eligible for communication assistance. Because only 2% of those diagnosed with communication disorders have access to these tools. And above all, “just because someone cannot speak it does not mean that they have nothing to say or that they cannot express themselves clearly,” François Liger decided to tackle this issue.
“Up until now, the existing tools have largely been limited to digital versions of paper aids designed 30 years ago,” he laments. “Lacking any real technological advancement, the burden of using these tools has continued to fall on those with communication difficulties leading to harmful consequences including frustration for users and prejudice and stigmatisation by the general public. Indeed, all too often, people who have difficulties expressing themselves are seen as having cognitive issues.”
All the more so since existing systems, which often rely on complex pictogram boards, frequently result in basic and sometimes incorrect sentences, discouraging even the most determined users.
Making the individual central to the system
The Lemma software solution, available on iPad, aims to simplify life for people with communication difficulties by allowing them to produce clear, understandable, grammatically correct and polite sentences quickly. It does this through an evolving formula.
However, it was important to find a balance between the needs of the users and the proposed solution because, “technology is useless if it does not match the users’ needs.” This is why, for years, François has focused his professional expertise and time on finding the ideal solution.
To meet this challenge and have a positive impact on the daily lives of millions of people, Fanny Oliveira, an entrepreneur with a wealth of experience in managing innovative projects, joined François in 2020 to lead strategy and operations.
Preparing for market
In 2021, the pair decided it was time to create a company and engage directly with their target audience. “Our model is to work with speech therapists (in Belgium) and language therapists (in France) as well as occupational therapists who help set up communication aids for users,” explains Fanny. “There are over 30,000 professionals in total across the two countries, but obviously not all are specialists in augmentative and alternative communication. Our aim is to train experts who can then pass their knowledge onto their colleagues.“
The duo is also completing a highly encouraging field test that began more than two years ago with the “La Cime – La Famille” specialist school in Uccle, Brussels.
A certified medical device
Ahead of the commercial launch of the Lemma software, scheduled for autumn 2024, the couple is proud to have achieved certification as a medical device. “We now comply with the European Medical Devices Regulation, in effect since May 2021, which stipulates that disability compensation falls under this framework.”
Under certain conditions, users of the Lemma software will be eligible for financial support specific to each country or region. A monthly rental system is also planned for those who do not qualify for this assistance.
Big ambitions
The Lemma Factory team currently consists of just Fanny Oliveira and François Liger, “proof that you do not need a large team to do things well,” François jokes. However, the team is expected to grow soon, once the commercial launch has taken place in Brussels for the Belgian and French markets, and once the young company has found new financial partners.
Because they have big ambitions: “We want to become a leader in innovative solutions for optimising support for people with communication or language difficulties! We also plan to expand our services around the application and take advantage of Brussels’ multilingualism to offer effective solutions in other languages, particularly in English, which would give us access to a vast market.“
Impossible without lifetech.brussels
For all this, the support of the healthcare cluster of hub.brussels, lifetech.brussels, has been invaluable, even before Lemma Factory was founded. “The annual lifetech.brussels event that we attended opened the door to the health innovation ecosystem in Brussels,” they say enthusiastically.
They then joined the MedTech Accelerator where they learned how to structure their project quickly and made critical connections. “The timing was perfect,” stresses Fanny Oliveira. “The courses on offer and the experts we met were of a very high standard and always relevant. We got the right answers to the many questions we asked to move our project forward.” The lifetech.brussels team also helped them prepare their application for the Proof of Business grant from Innoviris.
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