One of the most important parts of communication is being able to hear from who or what you are communicating. However, people with hearing problems have found it very hard to do this.
According to the World Health Organization, “Over 5% of the world’s population – or 430 million people – requires rehabilitation to address their ‘disabling’ hearing loss (432 million adults and 34 million children). It is estimated that by 2050 over 700 million people – or one in every ten people – will have disabling hearing loss.”
As regards the challenges faced by the deaf in exploring the digital world, the most common barriers include media without captions, audio without transcripts; lack of sign language interpretations, and non-inclusive social media platforms.
In order to conquer this is a challenge, Luke Kizito, an entrepreneur from Kenya, has developed a mobile app known as “assistALL” in order to provide access to the digital world for deaf people.
About assistALL
assistALL, a sign language interpretation mobile app, will help deaf people and businesses, banks, employers, and hospitals communicate with each other easily.
Kizito said. “It (assitALL) is a combination of words ‘assistive platform for all’ as it connects sign language interpreters with businesses, employers, banks, hospitals, among others, when serving the deaf,”
The Process
The platform charges customers on a per-second basis, before receiving virtual interpretation services, customers must first make a payment into the interpreters’ wallets using M-Pesa, Visa, or PayPal.
“And also the cost is very low, as low as Sh30 ($0.26) per minute and one interpreter can serve many deaf people at the comfort of his/her homes,” Kizito said about the platform.
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According to Kizito, to use this service, a video call with interpreters signing for the deaf and voice users will be set up.
At the conclusion of the call, interpreters are paid in accordance with the time spent on the call.
“Interpreter downloads the app when on data, select language and country, register details to create a profile and specialisation (area good for your interpretation),” he added.
The application is downloadable for use on most Android-powered devices.
Observations
According to the statement made by the company, there are currently seven employees directly working on the project, but they want to increase that number to 500 interpreters.
Kizito also owns Signs Media Kenya Limited, which includes Signs TV, a TV station that uses sign language to talk to viewers.
The project has thus far received funding from the United Nations Development Programme Kenya (UNDP-K) via the disability innovation challenge and the GSMA innovation fund.
