Project Details
Title:
SignLink (Communication)
Details:
Ghana has approximately **1 million people** living with hearing loss, yet the country has fewer than **100 certified sign language interpreters** nationwide — a staggering gap.
This means the majority of Deaf Ghanaians face daily communication barriers in situations most people take for granted — visiting a hospital, attending school, interacting with government services, or simply having a conversation with a hearing person.
The consequences are severe. Deaf patients receive misdiagnoses because doctors cannot communicate with them. Deaf students fall behind because teachers have no way to bridge the gap. Deaf job seekers are turned away not because of skill, but because of communication. Social isolation becomes the default reality.
Existing solutions require booking an interpreter days in advance, paying high fees, or relying on slow, inadequate text-based workarounds. None of these work in real time.
**SignLink addresses this directly** — putting a real-time sign language translator in anyone's pocket, for free, requiring nothing but a smartphone camera. No interpreter. No booking. No waiting.
In a country where the Deaf community is consistently underserved by infrastructure, SignLink isn't a convenience — it's access to basic human communication.
SignLink has four core goals: 1. Break the communication barrier — enable real-time, instant translation of Ghanaian Sign Language into readable text, eliminating dependence on scarce human interpreters. 2. Democratize access — deliver this capability through a free, smartphone-based app that works on affordable Android devices already in the hands of most Ghanaians. 3. Operate offline-first — run core sign recognition on-device so the app functions without reliable internet, addressing Ghana's inconsistent connectivity reality. 4. Scale inclusively — build a platform that can expand from GSL to other local signing variations, and eventually reverse the translation direction from text back to sign via 3D avatars. The overarching goal is straightforward: no Deaf Ghanaian should be unable to communicate in a hospital, classroom, or public office simply because no interpreter is available.
SignLink is designed with Ghana's actual constraints in mind, not imported assumptions. Connectivity — Ghana's mobile internet is unreliable outside major cities. SignLink's on-device TFLite inference means translation works without a stable connection. No data, no problem. Device accessibility — the app targets mid-range Android devices, which dominate Ghana's smartphone market. No iPhone required, no high-end hardware assumed. Language specificity — the system is built to support Ghanaian Sign Language (GSL) as its primary language, not defaulting to ASL like most Western tools do, making it immediately relevant to Ghana's Deaf community. Healthcare context — Ghana's public hospitals are severely under-resourced with interpreters. SignLink targets clinic and CHPS compound interactions as a primary use case. Cost barrier — the app is free. No subscription, no per-use fee, removing the economic barrier that excludes low-income Deaf Ghanaians from existing paid interpretation services.