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Good practice Imported

eKitabu Accessible Content Program: Born-Accessible Books & Kenyan Sign Language Storytelling

Kenya · Nairobi · See the Kenya profile · See the Nairobi profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 23% 92/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

eKitabu, a Nairobi edtech nonprofit, builds born-accessible e-books for blind/low-vision learners and Kenyan Sign Language video storybooks for deaf learners with Kenya's Ministry of Education. 160+ titles are in the Global Digital Library; a small 2022 pilot showed gains.

160+
Accessible titles in Global Digital Library
13
Publishing houses trained on EPUB toolkit
eKitabu Accessible Content Program: Born-Accessible Books & Kenyan Sign Language Storytelling

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
eKitabu
Period
2012–present (accessible EPUB toolkit from ~2016; Digital Story Time from 2020)
Keywords
accessibility, assistive technology, deaf education, blind & low-vision education, sign language, digital publishing

Context

eKitabu, a Nairobi edtech nonprofit founded in 2012, produces accessible digital reading content for blind, low-vision and deaf learners in Kenya: an open-source Accessible EPUB Toolkit for publishers, and Studio KSL, which produces Kenyan Sign Language video storybooks with closed captions, launched after Kenya's Ministry of Education asked eKitabu to support deaf children when COVID-19 closed schools in 2020.

Results

13 Kenyan publishing houses were trained on the EPUB toolkit, and a Content Development Challenge saw six publishers submit 70 titles in accessible format. More than 160 accessible titles have been uploaded to the Global Digital Library. A small 2022 pilot across two schools with deaf units reported improvements in sign-language skills, attendance and learning gains, though the sample was small.

Conclusions

Reach figures such as '4 million households' and '1,500 schools' describe potential broadcast/curriculum distribution rather than confirmed individual users, and the programme depends heavily on donor and grant funding rather than a durable government budget line.

Implementation

Implementation detail (cost, timeline, staffing, conditions for success) is not yet available for this practice.

Commonly funded by

Philanthropic / foundation funding

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Data sources

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