assistALL mobile app

Persons with disabilities experience a lot of stigma in their day today lives because in the African households, disability is normally associated with 'witchcraft' whereby during their formative years as children they are projected as misfits and therefore end up growing and inflicting self discrimination.We therefore wish to make information and communication accessible without barriers to the deaf, contribute to inclusive employment, contribute to the elimination of stigma and discrimination, promote role modelling and esteem building, encourage companies to advertise in sign language and also use persons with disabilities as advertising models. This will contribute to inclusion in society where no one is left behind. So far assistALL is in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Romania meaning that its scalable to any part of the world without any hindrance.

According to World Health Organization(WHO) disability report of 2011,more than one billion(15%)people in the world live with some form of disability, nearly 200 million experience difficulties in functioning. It further states that in the years ahead, disability will be an even greater concern because its preference is on the rise due to ageing populations and the higher risk of disability in older people as well as the global increase in chronic health conditions such as cardiovascular diseases, and mental health disorders. People with disabilities experience barriers in accessing services that many of us have long taken for granted, including health, education, employment, transport as well as information.

WHO estimates that over 5% of the worlds population-or 466 million people has disabling hearing loss(432 million adults and 34 million children).Its estimated that by 2050,over 900 million people-or one in every ten people will have disabling hearing loss.

This means that the availability of efficient, quality and affordable sign language interpretation is a basic necessity if this population is to participate fully in the social, political, economic and talent opportunities available.

The assistALL application is available on Android OS and can be downloaded free of charge from the Google Play and provides access interpreters online for use in hospitals, colleges and employment environment greatly reducing physically walking with an interpreter, provides ability to serve several deaf people from one location.

The solution was developed as a response to challenges posed by Covid 19 where;

1.Very few doctors and nurses can fluently converse in sign language

2.Personal Protective Equipments (PPEs) making it very hard for interpreters to communicate effectively with a deaf person due to covered face and hands.

Persons with disabilities experience a lot of stigma in their day today lives because the African households disability is normally associated with "witchcraft" whereby during their formative years as children they are projected as "misfits" and therefore end up growing and inflicting self-discrimination. The company therefore works towards;

1.Information without barriers to the Deaf.

2.Contributing to Inclusive employment

3.Contributing in elimination of stigma and discrimination, promote role modelling and esteem building

4.Advertisements with sign language treatment opening to new markets

5.Contributing to inclusion in society where no one is left behind.

Access – increasing accessibility and usability of handsets and mobile services for people with disabilities. This will not include mobile network coverage and connectivity, electricity or IDs.

Affordability – improving the affordability of handsets or mobile phones and usage fees for people with disabilities

Relevance - ensuring availability of content, products and services that are relevant to, and meet the needs of people with disabilities

Knowledge and skills - providing people with disabilities with the knowledge and skills required to access and use mobile services, as well as increasing awareness and understanding of the benefits of mobile technology

Currently assistALL is on Google Play store and can be accessed by everyone with an android phone. Its currently at MVP (Minimum Viable Product) which has sign language interpreters, and different users. On the dashboard, the users can only view the sign language interpreters. We are now developing the payment module which will be soon be integrated and allow sign language interpreters earn from the platform. It has been tested in Kenya and availability of sign language interpreters is on a charity basis but when the payment module goes live, then we can guarantee the availability of sign language interpreters 24 hours a day. However, professional sign language interpretation services can be accessed from the mobile app from any part of the world. Currently we have over 100 users testing it and we have enough feedback to finally develop the app for the market. 

Our solution is innovative in that it takes the few professional sign language interpreters in the world and makes them available to millions of businesses, customers, professionals including over 430 Million persons with hearing disabilities. A hospital may subscribe to assistALL app and load its wallet which it can then give its staff access to its wallet and they will be able to connect with the professional sign language interpreters to be able to assist the deaf patients. Similarly, banks, brokerage houses, universities, colleges will now be able to integrate the deaf in their curriculum as normal students or normal persons in their businesses. The app will enable every deaf person to now be able to do business with normal persons through the use of the mobile app for sign language interpretation services thus being a huge enabler for poverty reduction in Africa and the being able to improve the lives of deaf persons to lead lives as normal people.     

Current; 100 deaf users, 1B2B, 50 B2C

In one year; 5000 deaf users, 5B2B, 100B2C

In 5years; 50,000 deaf users, 50B2B, 1000B2C

Our current potential KPIs are as foolws;

1) Number of new subscriptions (disaggregated by gender, age, geographical location)

2) Number of active users

3) Number of people who access services because of the app

4) Number of B2B onboarded (disaggregated by type of business/service)

5) Number of interpreters onboarded, revenue from the app, unlocked income.  

1.Full time  staff are six and part time are four.

2.We have a contracter who has four staff mebers

Project Lead

Peter Koigi holds two degree programs, bachelor of Commerce in Accounting, and a Bachelor of science in International business administration. He holds a diploma in sales and marketing and was recently recruited to head the assistALL project. He is responsible for taking assistALL to the next level.

Sign Language Quality Control Officer

Jedidah Wafula Nanjala is a professional Sign Language interpreter for the past 5 years and having specialized in sign language interpretation skills. She is in-charge of maintaining quality in the interpreters recruitment and her input and gives feedback on deaf users. 

Project Accountant

Raphael Muriithi is equipped a Masters in Business Administration, he is also a Certified Public Accountant. He is in-charge of all project accounting for assistall

Marketing Officer

Mary wambua holds a bachelor of commerce with a concentration in marketing. She also holds professional marketing qualifications and a member of marketing society of kenya. She is in-charge of the overall marketing activities of assistall project.

Programmer

Alvin Otieno holds a bachelors degree in IT and professional qualifications in several programming languages. He is currently specializing in mobile apps development and is also instrumental in assistALL development. 

Admin Assistant

Daisy Okello is the current admin assistant for assistall project. She holds a bachelors degree in business administration. She also doubles up as a call center agent for the assistall project in diseminating the problems encountered by the users of assistall to the development team.

We advertised for all the positions where we specifically encouraged persons with disabilities to apply for the various assistALL positions. However as Signs Media Kenya Limited over 60% of the staff are persons with various disabilities from mobility(autism) to the deaf, blind, etc. We have embraced disability in all our programming as shown on Signs TV where the judges are free to see our programming to see the disabled in our society running a TV Station. Through assistALL we plan on embracing every opportunity to have the diversity, equity and inclusion for all on assistall. On the assistALL project we have 50% women staff which means that we have embraced gender equality on a large scale.    

We are applying to solve so that they can assist in us in raising funds for further development of assistALL app as well as raising funds for creating awareness around the mobile app. If we heavily invest around the mobile app like all major mobile apps in the market, we will be able to help assist a definite percentage of 430Million deaf persons in dire need of a communication tool in their day to day activities as well as create jobs for the few sign language interpreters available in the market as well as encourage more to enroll for sign language classes to serve the deaf population that was previously ignored in most innovations.

We require funds to advertise on the mainstream media as this tends break ground when we do finally send our foot soldiers to pitch and bring on board business to business customers. The success of the mobile app uptake and deliverables heavily depends on marketing and public relations on the mainstream media so as to acquire Business to Customers and Business to Government also. We require to hire a team of marketing professionals to market assistall in all the platforms available. 

Further development of assistall to incorporate the blind also in our service through a video guide service as our motto is leave no one behind. This involve development of assistall to incorporate the guides module and also assistive technologies such as white can cameras and earphones for the complete package. We therefore need funds for further development of assistall to cover the blind persons too. 

We welcome any partner who shares our vision in leaving no one behind. Any partner wishing to invest in marketing budget as well as development of assistALL is welcome to help us in assistive technology so as to help the millions in need of the assistALL services. 

assistALL can also be used in classrooms and university setups to assist the deaf in their learning activities through professional sign language interpretation services as the teacher or lecturer is teaching the students. 

We pride ourselves in digital inclusion where the deaf can be part of normal learning programs using assistALL mobile app. We believe, the same classroom can be shared by the deaf and normal students in the learning space through digital innovation brought about by assistALL.

Therefore, we believe we are qualified for the ASA Prize for equitable education to all whether deaf or not so as to advance our solution.   

We believe there are refugees who are deaf and some social workers would like to assist those refugees but they do not know to assist them since they are not sign language interpreters. 

assistALL mobile app comes in to assist these social and health workers assisting deaf refugees in war torn countries as well as in refugee camps in communicating with the deaf refugees and being able to assist them appropriately. 

The deaf refugees can also do business and settle seamless in those countries that assistALL mobile app seeks to operate in. We therefore believe that we are the best fit for Andan Prize for innovation in refugee inclusion so as to advance our solution to serve the world.  

Our team will use the HP Prize for further development of assistALL mobile app to include serving blind people using a human guide on the mobile app. 

Currently, we are serving the deaf through the assistALL mobile app by assisting young students who have hearing disabilities communicate and also learn in a normal classroom setup with other normal students.

Our motto is to leave no one behind and thus we have heavily invested in the assistive technology to help the deaf and the blind in the world to do business and be assisted in hospitals, banks as well as in classroom setups through assitALL mobile app.

We believe that we are qualified for this prize so that the funds can go into further development to include even more disabilities on assistALL mobile app. e.g. The crippled could be used as guides on the mobile app for the blind thus job creation and increase in socio economic welfare of the disabled in our society.   

assistALL mobile app qualifies for this prize in that it seeks to bridge the gap that women and girls who were previously discriminated due to them having hearing disabilities (deaf) in learning institutions and businesses can now use assistall mobile app to communicate and conduct business through the use of  of the professional sign language interpreters for interpretation services. 

We will use the innovation for women prize to advance the solution to even create more awareness to the deaf women and girls in the world so that they can greatly benefit from assistALL. We are also in the process of upgrading assistall app to cover the blind space where we will also be able to assist women and girls who have visual disabilities in getting to their destinations without incidences called assistALL guide.   

We plan on incorporating AI into assistall mobile app particularly in serving persons with visual disabilities (Blind) in getting to their normal daily activities, using machine language. A blind person will be able to store their daily routine into assistall App and the assistall guide will be able to guide their way through traffic, places to conduct their daily routine such as work, home, friend's home, restaurant, washroom, etc. 

We will use the AI for humanity prize to further develop assistALL to incorporate new AI features to be able to serve the blind apart from the deaf. 

We are qualified for the prize under digital inclusion where we have included persons with hearing disabilities and also persons with visual disabilities in our mobile app. assistall app strives to flourish in the disability networks in providing assitive technology to the deaf and blind persons in our country and the world. 

Currently assistAll provides a platform for sign language interpreters to offer professional sign language interpretation services to B2B and B2C and B2G as well as expected 430 Million persons worldwide if it was adopted in the world.

assistALL, can be used in schools, universities, colleges and technical and vocational training institutions through the use of sign language interpreters thus helping the deaf realize their career and educational goals. The app can be used for STEM classes to help the deaf students understand what they are taught in a normal class with the rest of the normal students. This means that deaf persons can now acquire the same STEM knowledge with the rest of the normal students seamlessly by the use of assistALL mobile app.     

We will use the GSR Prize money to further develop assistALL mobile app to help bring persons with visual disabilities on board through the assistall guide.