Teenager honored for creating sign language-teaching app

App designed to make learning sign language easy for everyone

PINECREST, Fla. – A South Florida teen who has a knack for creating apps came up with an app to help her learn sign language so she could communicate with her sister.

A bond between two sisters is unlike no other, so when it was time to enter the Congressional App Challenge, Victoria Rios, 17, knew exactly what she wanted to do.

"Personally I thought of sign language," Rios said. "That crossed my mind to make an educational app like that."

It's an app designed to make learning sign language easy for everyone. So far, the app teaches you the alphabet and your colors.

With help from her teacher, Rios even did the coding herself.

"I made it using HTML, which is used to make websites," Rios said.

She came out on top -- Rios beat out the 79 other students who entered the challenge, and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen was there to present her the award.

"They looked at Vicki's app and each of the three judges gave her a 10," Ros-Lehtinen said.

Rios now gets to go to Washington, D.C. and present her creation to Congress.


About the Author:

Nicole Perez is the the primary co-anchor of Local 10 News at 4 p.m., 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. She first joined Local 10 in July 2016 as the morning traffic reporter.