Sesla is Back: The Return of Konuşan Parmaklar
This isn't my first time building an AAC app. Years ago, through my company Javatar Yazılım, I created Konuşan Parmaklar (Talking Fingers), Turkey's first native AAC application. The idea was simple: every child deserves a voice, no matter their ability to speak.
What is AAC?
AAC stands for Augmentative and Alternative Communication. For millions of children and adults with speech disabilities caused by autism, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, or other conditions, AAC apps are literally their voice. You tap a picture of "water" and the phone says "Su istiyorum" (I want water). You build sentences by tapping symbols. That's how you communicate with the world.
In English-speaking countries, apps like Proloquo2Go ($250 one-time), TouchChat ($300+), and LAMP Words for Life have been around for over a decade. They're powerful, well-funded, and clinically validated. But they all share a blind spot: they don't really work for Turkish.
The First Attempt
When I built Konuşan Parmaklar, the Turkish AAC market was basically empty. No app treated Turkish as a first-class language with proper symbols, culturally relevant content, and natural-sounding speech. I wanted to change that.
But the tech wasn't ready. I ended up developing and patenting one of the first Turkish text-to-speech engines. It worked, but it still sounded robotic and struggled with vowel harmony and agglutination. There was no proper sound library to work with either, so I had to rely on Google Translate audio as a workaround. Smartphones were slower, cross-platform tools were immature. Building a quality AAC app for Turkish meant fighting the platform at every turn.
I sold the company. The project went dormant. But the mission never left me.
Why Now?
Fast forward to 2026, and everything has changed:
Turkish TTS is now excellent. Both iOS (AVSpeechSynthesizer) and Android (Google TTS) ship high-quality Turkish voices on-device. No internet required. The voices sound natural, handle vowel harmony correctly, and support multiple voice options.
Flutter makes solo development viable. One codebase, two platforms. The Impeller rendering engine delivers 98-99% frame rate consistency on image-heavy grids, exactly what AAC symbol boards need. I can build for iOS and Android at the same time without maintaining two codebases.
AI helps with quality assurance. With AI-assisted code review and testing, a solo developer can keep the quality bar that used to require a team. 275 tests, Turkish morphology rules, a complete communication engine, and AI helping me review, test, and catch bugs along the way.
"Sesla" means "voice" in Turkish (sesle / seslen, to call out, to give voice). The name itself is the mission.
What Makes Sesla Different
Turkish-first, not Turkish-translated. Sesla isn't an English app with Turkish labels bolted on. Turkish and English are each a complete, standalone experience with culturally authentic symbols and content. Turkish morphology (the complex system of vowel harmony, verb conjugation, and noun cases) is built into the core, not an afterthought.
Accessible pricing. The big AAC apps cost $250-$300 upfront or $7-10/month. In Turkey, that's out of reach for most families. Sesla will have a generous free tier with a modest subscription for premium features. Communication is a right, not a luxury.
Modern, not clinical. Most AAC apps look like medical software from 2010. Sesla uses Material 3 design with dark mode, high contrast, and full accessibility support. It should feel like an app a child actually wants to use.
Current status: Core development is complete. 3,400+ symbols, Turkish morphology engine, communication builder, user profiles, accessibility features, 275 tests. Now in the pre-launch phase, working toward beta.
The Road Ahead
Sesla is being built in the open. This devlog will document the journey: the technical challenges, the design decisions, and the path from code to the hands of families who need it. If you're a speech-language pathologist, a parent of a non-verbal child, or just someone who believes everyone deserves a voice, follow along.
This is the return of Konuşan Parmaklar. Built with better tools, guided by the same mission.