Kenya robotic arms turn speech into sign for deaf pupils

Kenyan start-up ZeroBionic has built robotic hands designed to translate a teacher's voice into sign language in real time, aiming to help deaf pupils learn alongside hearing classmates.

The company, co-founded by 22-year-old Norah Kimathi, is also using deaf teachers to record and store signs with a bodysuit. The work is building a database of technical terms drawn from English, American and Kenyan signs, addressing gaps that make subjects such as maths and biology harder to teach.

Kimathi said Africa lacks a standardised sign-language dataset, forcing the team to build its system from scratch. The company works with a humanoid robot called Africa One to refine and expand the signs its mechanical arms can produce.

The hands are designed and built in-house in Nairobi using recycled materials and 3D printers. Each hand costs about $350 and can last for up to two years. The robotic hands are already in 78 schools across Kenya.

The Kenya Society for Deaf Children says about 300,000 children in Kenya have a hearing impairment, while 20,000 were enrolled in schools as of 2024.