Rosco Nap joined SpeakSee in January 2020 as the lead software developer and works closely with Marcel van der Ven and the other members of the technical development team.

Could you tell us a bit about yourself?

“My name is Rosco, I am 35 years old and I live in the southern part of the Netherlands. I love things that go fast, programming and all things tech related. I have been tinkering with hardware and software from a young age.”

What is your role at SpeakSee?

“I am a software engineer at SpeakSee, I am working on back-end programming and server environments. This means that I am responsible for the components that process the audio and transcribe that data into text on the user’s device.

This process must be as secure, fast and efficient as possible. Therefore, the main part of my job is to create reliable and fast software for the user. Every morning begins with revisiting the work that I have done on the previous day and sharing that with the team. We then begin to plan what our goals will be for the day and then the programming can start. I usually conclude each day in a meeting with the other members of the development team to discuss what we have achieved today and what we would like to focus on the following day.”

When did you first begin working for SpeakSee?

“I was initially contacted by Marcel (co-founder of SpeakSee) on LinkedIn because of my prior involvement in projects with the Deaf or Hard of Hearing community. I had previously helped with the ‘Werelddovendag’ (World Deaf Day) because my partner is a speech to text interpreter, and this was how I gained an understanding of the Deaf or Hard of Hearing world.

I hadn’t heard of SpeakSee before but after I was invited to the office and heard the mission of SpeakSee, I knew that I wanted to join the team because the project was close to my heart. I really loved the enthusiasm in the team, and I believed that this was the right place for me. I am a technical person by nature so when I saw the office for the first time it was like a dream come true, that certainly inspired me to join the team and work with SpeakSee.”

What motivates you to make the world more accessible for those

who are Deaf or hard of hearing?

“Everything that I knew about the Deaf or hard of hearing community prior to joining SpeakSee came from the knowledge and experiences of my partner. Initially I didn’t know much about it, I don’t know anyone within this community but after seeing her work and hearing her stories I slowly got involved myself. I think that if you can do something to make people’s lives much easier using technology then that is great, I have always loved the idea of being able to use technology to help people.”

What has been your hardest challenge during your time with SpeakSee?

“In my previous job I was working in more of a management role and I felt quite out of touch with the technology that we were working on. When I arrived at SpeakSee, it took a little bit of time for me to re- immerse myself into the technological aspect again.

I began working at SpeakSee in January 2020 and I think that whenever you come into a new environment where you are not familiar with everything it can be challenging to hit the ground running. If I had to choose my main challenge so far it would be the adjustment to the new environment, but I can say that now that I am comfortable here at SpeakSee, I am still very happy with the decision I made to join the team.”