Speakers
Description
Communication is a fundamental human right, yet millions of deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals across Kenya and Africa face significant barriers in accessing digital content and services. Signvrse is an open-source digital sign language interpreter that converts text and spoken language into expressive sign language animations rendered on avatars in real time — built on open-source foundations to demonstrate how community-driven technology can unlock inclusion at scale.
An estimated 600,000 deaf and hard-of-hearing Kenyans rely on Kenyan Sign Language as their primary mode of communication, yet the vast majority of digital platforms remain inaccessible to them. Human interpreters are scarce and expensive, and existing commercial solutions are proprietary, costly, and largely untailored to African contexts.
Our flagship product,TERP360 accepts text or speech input in any language and produces accurate, natural sign language output through animated 3D avatars. By leveraging open-source dataset models and sign language datasets, the platform supports multiple language inputs and is designed to be community-auditable and extensible. Source code, datasets, and models are released under permissive open-source licences to encourage contribution and adaptation for other African sign languages.
Signvrse has the potential to transform how deaf communities interact with public services, healthcare, education, and media in Kenya. Our vision is a Pan-African accessibility layer that any application can integrate — making the digital world truly inclusive. UbuCon Kenya 2026 is the ideal platform to share this work and rally developers to explore how they can contribute.
Justification
Signvrse directly embodies UbuCon's open-source ethos by presenting a working, community-auditable solution to a critical and underserved accessibility gap affecting 600,000+ deaf Kenyans, making it both a technically compelling demonstration and a rallying call for Pan-African contributor action
| Submission type | Talk |
|---|---|
| Where are you based? | Nairobi, Kenya |
| Technical level | advanced |