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Good practice Imported

Signs TV & assistALL (Signs Media Kenya)

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

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 10% 96/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Nairobi's Signs Media Kenya broadcasts free Kenyan Sign Language content via Signs TV and, through its assistALL app, brought paid sign-language interpretation to thousands of Deaf Kenyans — used by the electoral commission in the 2022 general election.

<2,000 → 7,000
assistALL users (2022)
~500,000
Estimated Signs TV Deaf viewers
143,000 GBP
GSMA Innovation Fund grant
Signs TV & assistALL (Signs Media Kenya)

Details

Maturity
Scaling
Promoter
Signs Media Kenya Limited
Period
2011–present (Signs TV broadcasting since 2017)
Keywords
deaf accessibility, sign-language media, assistive technology, digital inclusion

Context

Signs Media Kenya, founded in Nairobi in 2011, operates Signs TV - Kenya's free-to-air Kenyan Sign Language channel, on air since 2017 - and launched assistALL in April 2022, a mobile app for paid on-demand sign-language interpretation, backed by a GBP 143,000 GSMA Innovation Fund for Assistive Technology grant and the UNDP Kenya Disability Innovation Challenge.

Results

The Zero Project documented assistALL growing from under 2,000 downloads in mid-2022 to 7,000 users by late 2022, and Kenya's Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission adopted the app to assist Deaf voters in the August 2022 general election. Signs TV's reach is estimated at roughly 500,000 Deaf viewers; Kenya has only about 500 registered sign-language interpreters for an estimated 260,000 Deaf or hard-of-hearing people, a structural bottleneck for scale.

Implementation

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

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