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Kinder Horizon Foundation · Lighthouse AAC

Communication is a human right, not a premium feature.

We build free, open-source tools that give non-speaking children a voice. Nothing to buy. Nothing to subscribe to. Nothing tracked.

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Watch

Lighthouse AAC,
the launch reel.

2:49

Music: "Wholesome" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 4.0.

01 · The problem

Three barriers stand between a non-speaking child and their first word.

$200 to $400

Cost is a barrier.

Leading AAC apps cost $200 to $400. Many families cannot afford a child’s voice.

4 folders deep

Static interfaces overwhelm.

A child wanting ‘I am hungry’ navigates four nested folders. The moment passes. Frustration becomes meltdown.

Smart is not kind

Smart features make it worse.

Some apps move buttons. For a child who relies on muscle memory, a moving button is a silenced voice.

02 · Our approach

Augment, don’t rearrange.

When a child opens the app at home in the morning, ‘breakfast’ and ‘backpack’ subtly glow. At school during lunch, ‘hungry’ and ‘water’ surface instead. The full vocabulary is always there, always in the same place. The app illuminates the most likely path forward, never insists.

12:14 · Lunchtime · School
  • Glowing now: Hungry, Water, Help, Bathroom
  • 12:14 PM · weekday lunch hour
  • School (place-based context)
  • Inference runs on-device. Your child’s words never leave the tablet.
03 · Reach

Built for the world, because autism has no borders.

A kid in a refugee camp with a donated tablet should be able to use this. A family in rural India with spotty internet should be able to use this. A parent anywhere with a $60 secondhand tablet who cannot afford a $300 app should be able to use this.

  • Offline-first

    No internet required.

  • Lightweight

    Runs on low-end devices.

  • RTL-native

    Arabic from day one.

  • Distributed

    App Store, F-Droid, APK, device-to-device.

  • Free forever

    No subscriptions, no ads.
04 · How the glow works

Four signals, one quiet decision.

Time of day

Morning vocabulary surfaces in the morning. Bedtime vocabulary at bedtime.

Location context

Home and school each have their own most-likely words.

Sequential history

‘Want’ is often followed by a noun. The app weights what usually comes next.

Recency

What the child just said matters more than what they said last week.

All learning happens locally on the device. No data leaves the family’s tablet.

Epistemic humility ·The model never insists. It illuminates. The child decides.

05 · Roadmap

MVP beta, Q3 2026.

  1. Month 0
    User research with families
  2. Month 1
    Static AAC board with RTL
  3. Month 2
    Context logging begins
  4. Month 3
    Predictive Glow activates
  5. Month 4
    Closed alpha with 3 to 5 families
  6. Month 5
    Public beta on all distribution channels
06 · Leadership

Built by parents. Verified by registry.

  • Dr. Seyed Mohammad Javadi
    Co-Founder and President

    PhD, Computer Science. Over 15 years building consumer software at scale, including engineering roles at Amazon, Apple, and Netflix. Father of a non-speaking daughter.

    seyed@kinderhorizon.org
  • Maryam Aliyar
    Co-Founder and BCBA, Clinical Lead

    Board Certified Behavior Analyst. Master’s in Applied Behavior Analysis and Master’s in Computer Science. Mother of a non-speaking daughter.

    maryam@kinderhorizon.org
Registered nonprofit

Kinder Horizon Foundation is a registered BC Society. Incorporation S0085100, Business Number 72195 3636 BC0001. Incorporated April 17, 2026.