inABLE

I have served for 14 years as the Executive Director of inABLE, with a field staff and technical support.  However, the ability to scale the program across Kenya and beyond is hampered by the lack of consistent funding.  Though I have been tireless in outreach with grant submissions, partnership requests, and public speaking, long-term financial sustainability is still elusive.  

With the first award of the Elevate Prize, $150k would be allocated to 1) 50k to replenish Our Reading Spaces library resources, and 2) hire an Operations Director to build administrative systems and direct logistics.  This model would enable me to focus on “big picture” strategic hurdles, such as Board recruitment, multi-disability curriculum, and the development of assistive technology innovations.   

The second award would be used to recruit and train people living with disabilities in Africa to be digital accessibility certified professionals for my women/minority-owned startup Technoprise Global to ensure that the diverse needs of People with Disabilities (PWDs) are addressed when developing digital products and services. Technoprise offers a suite of services to employers fundamental to establishing barrier-free workforces, such as:  Digital accessibility services with Persons with disabilities, Training and User Experience Research with PWDs.

On a visit to my village in Kenya, a group of competitive, smart, and outgoing students captured my attention when they excelled at a reading challenge day at the Kenya National Library. To my surprise, these students were all blind or visually impaired. There I learned about the enormous funding inequalities between special schools for the blind and schools for the sighted (mainstream) students.  

I refused to accept this injustice, and my defiance became a mission to empower the blind and visually impaired through computer assistive technology. In 2009, I established inABLE.org — a nonprofit organization based in Nairobi, Kenya and Washington, DC — and straight away designed a computer-assistive-technology lab program for blind and visually impaired students in Kenya. To date, inABLE has established eight assistive technology computer labs, hired and trained 15 assistive technology computer instructors, and enrolled over 8,000 blind and visually impaired students and teachers. Our goal for the near term is to establish 50 inABLE computer labs for the blind in special schools for the blind across East Africa serving at least 10,000 blind and visually impaired students.  

Our world is slowly coming to terms with the marginalization of people with disabilities.  Millions of youths globally cannot achieve access to equal education solely because of their disabilities.  When I visited my home village in Kenya, it was truly eye-opening for me and led me to found inABLE -- Creating opportunities for blind students in Kenya to thrive in the digital age.  Harnessing the power of inclusivity for our world, from adding computer assistive technology in the classroom so that blind students can access education to training blind and visually-impaired graduates how to code and, more importantly, as advocates for their own employability – what if all technology was designed by and with people with disabilities in mind?    

 This thought inspired the founding of Technoprise Global, which helps companies understand how PWDs use technology (their digital products and services) and specializes in meeting global accessibility standards. More importantly, it shows the way to hire and create inclusive workplaces.  Our fundamental goal is to transform education for the blind in Africa, but the potential for what inABLE and Technoprise have begun is limitless.  

As of 2019, the Internet World Stats reported that 11 percent of the world’s Internet subscribers are from Africa and only 35.2 percent of Africans use the Internet. By empowering blind youth through computer assistive technology, inABLE gives them the opportunity to get ahead of the Internet-user curve. With calls to put People with Disabilities (PWDs) at the center of accessibility policy discussions, decisions and accessibility design, inABLE is leveraging public relations and influencer social marketing to disrupt the policy status quo.  Also, Africa is in the midst of a technology renaissance and inABLE’s experience working for the PWD population is recognized.  

Further, inABLE is working to change outdated mindsets and misinformation that marginalizes blind people. For example, in Africa it is still widely believed that blind people can’t operate a computer or smart phone; that blind people can’t use the Internet independently; and blind people can’t be effective website designers or software coders/developers.  By demonstrating the distinctive capabilities of computer-savvy blind students at a national level and bringing global disability rights advocates (like Haben Girma, the first deaf/blind person to graduate from Harvard Law School) to Africa, inABLE is pointing the way to new horizons for PWDs.    

inABLE students describe a burden being lifted when they discover alternatives to heavy Braille books – connected to the rest of the world through technology. The transformative effect starts from an early age in primary school, and expands all the way through high school.  Students become more independent as they acquire computer know-how, and as a result they become more social. At the inABLE assistive-technology computer labs, students can access online educational resources, develop employable skills like coding (HTML) and website design, and explore new interests. The gender-equal—peer-to-peer—learning environment fosters collaboration. Quicker learners who demonstrate mastery are given peer-trainers and champions for ICT opportunities to further develop their leadership, presentation and communication abilities. These accomplishments have resulted in real transformations to self-confidence and ambition for students who were formerly marginalized. 

With just basic computer skills, the students have gained the freedom, confidence, and independence to participate in their communities (social), access higher education and employment.