Problem:

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About 23.7% and 15.7% of Adults (>15 years old) in Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa respectively are hearing impaired (Treat, 2016; Mulwafu et al, 2015). Nearly 80 percent of deaf and hearing-impaired people live in low-income communities and are not able to sustain themselves, according to a report by Al Jazeera. 84% of this population in Nigeria remain undereducated and economically underdeveloped primarily due to communication gap with general populace (Eleweke, 2015).  There are over 300 000 and 111,000 deaf people in Zimbabwe and Ghana respectively according to Al jazeera. According to Deaf Zimbabwe, more than 94 percent of deaf children in Zimbabwe are out school due to lack of qualified teachers and resources.  Furthermore, Zimbabwe does not have specialized schools for deaf children and those in school are being taught by teachers who are not qualified to teach sign language.

People who are hearing-impaired are often marginalized, stigmatized, neglected and sometimes depressed. Inadequate training and education for the hearing-impaired increases unemployment, poverty and poor quality of life.

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Solution:

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SIGN-in is a digital social enterprise that aims to increase employability and financial stability of hearing impaired youths. This is a web-based application where hearing-impaired people can subscribe for skill training videos alongside a sign language translator. They get certified and access job opportunities while being mentored by skilled experts. SIGN-in is incorporated with a digital sign-speech/text translator for easy communication of hearing impaired people and their clients.

If SIGN-In is scaled globally, the web based application will help the hearing-impaired acquire desired skills easily and could become the primary source of connection and communication between hearing-impaired and clients or employers.

 

Link to Prototype:

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https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1UxTuPJKzxzkYJzi6aN_V9jbgG6aIoBtRNyPMa0SGmFA/edit#slide=id.p1

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