Barbara Fernandes, the founder and CEO of Smarty Ears is well know for her innovative and breakthrough product development which translates science into user friendly and powerful technology to support individuals with communication disorders. Barbara transformed an entire industry to adopt mobile technologies having designed and developed over 60 mobile applications and an entire communication symbol library. As also the founder of Smarty Symbols, Barbara has not only created the most inclusive and comprehensive symbol library but also developed a powerful new technology that is disrupting the special education field by providing a platform for custom visual support creation. Most recently Fernandes has been awarded a small business innovation research by the NIH, as well as released a ground-breaking technology called the Speech and Language Academy.