Over 100 million Africans live with a disability, yet local sign languages, speech accents, and street layouts are virtually absent from global AI models. JOHN ADOYI, in this feature, writes about the Hub for AI and Disability Inclusion (HAIDI) and the African Disability Data Network (ADDN): the new pan-African coalition building the data rails needed to fix AI’s disability desert.
When Francis Elendu, a secondary school teacher in Enugu, in southeastern Nigeria, wants to go out, he picks up his phone and his guide cane to aid his navigation.
“My guide cane is like the best tool for mobility,” he says. “I use some apps on my phone, like Envision AI and Seeing AI, to see things like poles and high objects on the road that my guide cane cannot detect.”
But the technology does not always understand the environment around him. Navigation apps can struggle with Nigerian streets and local context.
Originally published by TechCabal.