A free web tool built by Cambodia's CADT/IDRI with the National Institute for Special Education and Krousa Thmey Foundation machine-translates Khmer text and mathematical notation into Khmer Braille, automating manual transcription — and won gold at the 2025 ASEAN Digital Awards.
1,000+ students across 5 special-education and 20+ inclusive high schools
Students reportedly reached (unverified) (as of 2025 (unconfirmed))
Cambodia Academy of Digital Technology (CADT) / Institute of Digital Research and Innovation (IDRI) / National Institute for Special Education (NISE) / Krousa Thmey Foundation
Period
Project began 2022; ongoing; internationally recognised through 2025
Since 2022, Cambodia's Institute of Digital Research and Innovation (IDRI), part of the government-linked Cambodia Academy of Digital Technology (CADT), has worked with the National Institute for Special Education (NISE) and the Krousa Thmey Foundation — a longstanding Cambodian NGO serving deaf and blind children — to build a free, web-based machine-translation tool. It converts Khmer text, including the script's complex mathematical notation that had broken earlier translation software, into Khmer Braille, letting teachers prepare Braille reading materials for embossing or Braille-device display and automating a process that was previously slow and manual.
Objectives
To automate the production of Khmer Braille reading and teaching materials for blind and visually impaired students, replacing a slow, hand-done transcription process.
Results
On 20 January 2025, the Phnom Penh Post reported that the tool won gold in the Digital Inclusivity category at the 2025 ASEAN Digital Awards in Bangkok, beating over 120 regional entries. It had previously won 'Best Digital Research and Innovation of the Year' at the Cambodia Digital Awards 2024 and a 'Best Accessibility Award' at the World AI Conference in Shanghai. Cambodia's national AI Readiness Assessment Report, produced with UNESCO in 2024-2025, separately cites the tool by name as a 'promising pilot initiative demonstrating AI's potential for inclusive development.'
Conclusions
No independent academic evaluation or learning-outcome study was found. A secondary, non-institutional account (a Medium blog post) claims the tool reaches over 1,000 students across five special-education and more than 20 inclusive high schools, and cites a pre-tool manual transcription cost of roughly $0.50 per page (around 60 words) taking hours to produce — these specific figures could not be independently verified against an institutional source and are reported here only as an unconfirmed claim.
Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k) — No budget figures are published. A free, web-based tool built by a small multi-institutional team suggests a comparatively low development and running cost; treated as a conservative estimate pending disclosed figures.
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years) — Development began in 2022 and the tool has been actively used and entered for awards through 2024-2025, roughly a three-year span so far, with a 'phase two' (sign-language translation for maths, physics and geography) planned.
Staffing & skills
Institute of Digital Research and Innovation (IDRI) at the Cambodia Academy of Digital Technology (CADT), National Institute for Special Education (NISE), Krousa Thmey Foundation (NGO serving deaf and blind children)
Conditions for success
Multi-institutional partnership combining a government-linked digital-research institute, a special-education institute and an established disability-focused NGO
Handling Khmer's complex script and mathematical notation specifically, which had broken earlier translation software
International recognition (ASEAN Digital Awards, Cambodia Digital Awards, World AI Conference) building visibility and credibility
Common failure modes
No independent academic evaluation or learning-outcome study has been published
The only available reach and cost-savings figures come from a non-institutional Medium blog post and are explicitly unverified
Planned 'phase two' (sign-language translation) is not yet implemented
Where it fits
Governance type
government-linked research institute with NGO and special-education partners
Scale
national, pilot-scale reach
Income level
low income
Data sources
Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.
STMicroelectronics Foundation, ITU and a blind Milan professor run train-the-trainer digital-literacy classes for blind and visually-impaired adults in Dakar. An …
