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

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.

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.

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.