Charles Njoogu

“I am Charles Njoogu from Kajiado county.

I am a church leader as well as a politician, and I am deaf. I had a lot of barriers, especially when he had our political party meetings. I was an elected representative of a special interest group, and every time I wanted to advance my leadership, I would be confronted that our party had a behavior of not providing interpreters in meetings; this frustrated me so much.

I got in so much with this assisting technology I confronted all the leaders to insist our meetings must either be in English or sign language; I would set my phone on Live Transcribe through hearing enhancement, and all the speech was captured, and I would also wrote in return, it has been so good that I even become the secretary for disability in my county thanks to this noble initiative it has impacted a lot on life and leadership abilities.

Now, the leadership community have accepted me fully, even though there are some barriers. Additional request: if we can have sign-to-speech technology, it will completely remove all barriers against the deaf.”

Charles’ story reflects a broader shift in the use of mobile and emerging technologies as assistive tools. Through initiatives like Mobile as AT, GDI Hub is exploring how mobile devices can serve as powerful, affordable assistive technologies, particularly in low- and middle-income countries like Kenya. This research is helping unlock new possibilities for people with disabilities worldwide.