Organisation Name
Ishara AI Limited
Industry
Health services
Organisation Website
Country
Kenya
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being
SDG 4: Quality Education
SDG 10: Reduced Inequality
General Description of the AI tool
Our solution translates between Kenyan Sign Language (KSL), text, and speech, helping bridge communication gaps between Deaf and hearing communities. We leverage computer vision, 3D avatars, natural language processing, and cloud infrastructure to provide:
Sign-to-text/speech translation (real-time recognition of KSL signs).
Text-to-sign conversion using 3D avatars for accessibility.
Learning modules to teach sign language to both Deaf and hearing users.
Healthcare-focused translation datasets to improve medical access for Deaf patients.
Github, open data repository
Relevant Research and Publications
“Aspects of Kenyan Sign Language Morphology” – Guided our KSL grammar modeling.
AFRISIGN: MACHINE TRANSLATION FOR AFRICAN
SIGN LANGUAGES – Technical Paper on sign language translation with AI
VisionLLaMA: A Unified LLaMA Backbone for Vision Tasks (2024)– Technical Pater on the use of AI in the understaffing on vision tasks, we used this to develop our sign language recognition system
UNICEF ESARO guidance on Sign Language for Deaf Children’s Education and its Use in Accessible Digital Teaching & Learning Materials (2021) – Informed our Sing language education modules.
Ishara AI Pitch Deck & User Testing Reports – Provided practical insights from Deaf co-design.
Needs
Funding
Personnel
Customers
Public Exposure
R&D expertise
Mentorship Program
HPC resources and/or Cloud Computing Services