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"Nothing for Us Without Us": African App Earns Global Acclaim for Empowering Deaf Community
"Nothing for Us Without Us": African App Earns Global Acclaim for Empowering Deaf Community
Sputnik Africa
A young Kenyan engineer has won an international prize for developing an AI-powered technology that enables communication for millions of people with hearing... 14.11.2025, Sputnik Africa
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"Nothing for Us Without Us": African App Earns Global Acclaim for Empowering Deaf Community
Sputnik Africa
A young Kenyan engineer has won an international prize for developing an AI-powered technology that enables communication for millions of people with hearing disabilities in Africa.
For hundreds of thousands of people across Africa who are deaf or hard of hearing and face barriers in everyday life, a homegrown app, Terp 360, offers a lifeline. It uses AI to translate spoken language into 3D sign‑language avatars, making conversations more accessible. Beyond bridging communication gaps, the app shows how technology can be designed to include everyone.African Currents spoke with Elly Savatia, award-winning founder and CEO of Nairobi-based Signvrse, about the inspiration behind the homegrown app, how AI-powered 3D sign-language avatars are making education, healthcare, and daily communication more inclusive, and the role of local innovation in empowering communities long left on the margins.Want to hear more from our guest? Catch the full conversation on the African Currents podcast, brought to you by Sputnik Africa.You’ll find our episodes not just on the website, but also on Telegram.► You can also stream our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Deezer, Pocket Casts, Afripods, Podcast Addict.► Check out all the episodes of African Currents.
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"Nothing for Us Without Us": African App Earns Global Acclaim for Empowering Deaf Community
A young Kenyan engineer has won an international prize for developing an AI-powered technology that enables communication for millions of people with hearing disabilities in Africa.
For hundreds of thousands of people across Africa who are deaf or hard of hearing and face barriers in everyday life, a homegrown app, Terp 360, offers a lifeline. It uses AI to translate spoken language into 3D sign‑language avatars, making conversations more accessible. Beyond bridging communication gaps, the app shows how technology can be designed to include everyone.
African Currents spoke with Elly Savatia, award-winning founder and CEO of Nairobi-based Signvrse, about the inspiration behind the homegrown app, how AI-powered 3D sign-language avatars are making education, healthcare, and daily communication more inclusive, and the role of local innovation in empowering communities long left on the margins.
"We've always prioritized working closely with the deaf community. We work with more than 30 deaf signers that ensure the cultural authenticity of the sign language dialect we are collecting, which is Kenyan Sign Language. All the data on our platform is collected by deaf individuals, not even human interpreters. Some of the lessons that we've learned: there's this mantra in the disability community called nothing for us without us. [...] I can just talk about the opportunity that lies really out there with, you know, given Africa being a very young continent, a very populous continent, I think we have problems that are important to the African population and need urgent solutions. And I think of them as opportunities where the young population can really take initiative and say, this is a problem that is worth pursuing," Savatia expressed.
Want to hear more from our guest? Catch the full conversation on the African Currents podcast, brought to you by Sputnik Africa.
You’ll find our episodes not just on the website, but also on
Telegram.► Check out all the episodes of African Currents. 
