DDA Interview With Christie Faye Collins

Christie Faye Collins is Autistic. Like many in the disability community, finding a partner isn't always easy. So, she is creating NOMI. A new dating app specifically for the disability and neurodiverse community. www.nomiconnect.net is still in the testing phase and Christie and her team hope to have it up and running in 2023.

 

TRANSCRIPT:

Evan Kelly  0:06   Welcome again to the Developmental Disabilities Association's Encouraging Abilities podcast. We are here to connect with people in the disability and neurodivergent communities to help tell their stories. As much as 25% of Canadians identify with having a disability so there are certainly plenty of stories to tell and awareness to raise. Today we are joined by Christie Faye Collins. Christie is a young web developer based in Victoria, BC. She is also part of the Autistic community and has built a new dating app called Nomi, that targets of disability in neurodivergent communities. So welcome to our podcast, Christie.

Christie Faye Collins  0:42   Hi, Evan. It's so nice to be here. Thanks for having me.

Evan Kelly  0:44   Yeah. Thanks for joining me today. So tell me a little bit about yourself.

Christie Faye Collins  0:48   Yeah, well, my name is Christie. I'm a part of the neurodivergent community. I'm autistic. I live in Victoria. I recently moved here from Montreal a few months ago, and I had grown up on the west coast. So it feels really good to be back home. And right now I'm working on an app called Nomi, which is for the disability and neurodivergent communities.

Evan Kelly  1:11   Now, Nomi, the website for those listening is nomiconnect.net. So that's where they can find you. So you are a web developer, so are you a one person army in this thing? Or tell me a little bit about how you're putting this together.

Christie Faye Collins  1:29   Yeah, so I'm a web developer. But when I first started this company, when I first had the idea, I quickly realized that it would be a lot of work to both be the CEO, and do all of the technical work. And I also would have had to learn a native web development language, which is what you need to know to build an app for the App Store or Google Play. So I personally am handling all of the non-technical stuff. And I have a couple of people working on the iOS app. They're currently working on a prototype so that we can start user testing very soon. And yeah, they've just been absolutely amazing. We get to bounce ideas off of each other and it feels a lot less lonely, having a company, having a thing that I'm working on every day, without having any external kind of validation, or having people who I can talk to you when things get difficult. So that's just been absolutely wonderful. It's a great experience working with them. And they're both really passionate about the project as well.

Evan Kelly  2:37   Alright, sounds good. So to be clear, for listeners, that Nomi is still sort of in the testing in prototype stage, it's not up and running yet?

Christie Faye Collins  2:46   Exactly, yeah. So we're hoping to have it up and running by 2023. Of course, also, if anybody wants to participate in user testing, you can send me an email through the website. But yeah, for now, we are just working on a prototype so that we can really hash out exactly what features people really want and need. And we can meet and hopefully exceed those needs with the first run of the app. And then we'll have it actually running by 2023. That's the goal. 

Evan Kelly  3:19   Now, where did you come up with the name Nomi?

Christie Faye Collins  3:22   Yeah, so I wanted to find something short and unique that people might find fun to say. I was bouncing around a few ideas, thinking maybe something alluding to disability or neurodivergence. But after a while, I was like, "Okay, I'll just figure something out. It'll be a placeholder for no