Pelgrina Ndumba (34), who is visually impaired, and Ester Lumbu, (32), who is hearing-impaired, have developed a mobile and web application (app), called Connect-Africa, to help solve some ICT challenges they face with their disabilities. The app assists the visually impaired by detecting, among others, the denomination of Namibian banknotes, newspaper articles, programmes, medical labels and bank statements, as well as translating these into speech. For the hearing impaired, the app translates spoken word into text and Sign Language, and vice versa, allowing the hearing-impaired individual to attend school, university or any gathering without the aid of a Sign Language interpreter. Ndumba is optimistic the app will improve their lives and enable them to perform better in their daily lives, while enhancing the knowledge of the uneducated hearing- and visually impaired. Similar apps in the world for the hearing-impaired can only capture what people say and translate into text, but Connect-Africa can translate speech into Sign Language.

Source: The North Africa Journal November 18, 2021 01:24 UTC