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Duclair Fopa Kuete, a 23-year-old Cameroonian developer, has launched an artificial intelligence tool that aims to make the internet accessible to deaf users worldwide, by translating digital content into sign language in real time.

"According to the WHO, there are 1.5 billion people with hearing impairments who are excluded from digital content. And of those 1.5 billion, 70 million are deaf and mute, and we realised that this is a truly critical issue," said Fopa, co-founder and chief executive of InReach, the startup behind the tool.

The InReach platform functions as a browser extension that converts audio and text into sign language instantly, allowing users with hearing impairments to access videos, online courses and virtual meetings without further changes to architecture.

"We realised we could view it as something universal that can be integrated into any type of system," he explained.

Fopa said existing solutions are often limited to individual platforms or rely on human interpreters, who must be scheduled in advance and are not available around the clock.

The tool currently supports more than 200 sign languages, addressing a longstanding gap in accessibility. While subtitles and captions are widely used, Fopa argues they often fail to convey full meaning.

"The captions and subtitles we see, for example on YouTube in the videos that are created; these captions and subtitles often miss at least 70% of the context, meaning a deaf person cannot follow online digital content based on them," Fopa noted.

The startup began testing the technology with students in Cameroon's western region, where users were able to watch online lessons and videos translated into sign language in real time.

A deaf student who participated in the trial, Belvine Kenfack, said the experience marked a significant improvement over traditional viewing capabilities.

"I'm proud because I understand the film and what it's trying to say," she shared.

Developers say the technology could also reduce costs for digital platforms, which can take years to implement sign language support. Fopa said the long-term goal is ambitious but clear:

"We always say that we want to make the internet accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing - in other words, we want to translate any digital content into sign language instantly."

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Transcript
00:28Transcribed by ESO, translated by —
00:43We have to find out that, according to the OMS, we have 1,5 million people who are
00:53ignorant and excluded from digital content. And if it's 1,5 million, there are 110 million
01:01who are worse. We say that it's a really critical problem. And we also think that, OK,
01:07is that a person who is worse today can, for example, go to YouTube,
01:13watch a video and understand, or maybe look at a tutorial and understand
01:17what it is? Is that a person who can participate in a Google Meet?
01:20What does the weather look like today? What does the weather look like today?
01:32And at the end, we are able to find a prototype that we could demonstrate.
01:39And the idea comes now that when we look at our prototype, we say that we can consider
01:45this prototype as something universal that can integrate into all types of systems.
02:04What does the weather look like today?
02:20What does the weather look like today?
02:20So, how does our solution look different from the other one?
02:26First of all, we have already noticed that there are solutions that exist but are specific
02:34to a platform.
02:35That means that there are no solutions that can work in any way, they are specific to
02:40a platform.
02:42Another solution, there are human interpreters, but the problem is that to have access to
02:48them, they need a meeting in advance, they are not available for 24 hours by 7.
03:07Another thing that we have noticed is that we are in a world where we have given
03:14the titles and the subtitles and we are saying that we are doing accessibility.
03:24In forgetting that the titles and the subtitles that we see on YouTube, on the videos that
03:29are created, these titles and subtitles often lack at least at least 10% of the context.
03:37And so, a person soumised can't follow a digital content online based on that.
03:42So, that's why we built URIJ and together, we want to achieve our goal, which is to make
03:51the Internet accessible to 1,5 million people who are malentendants in the world, according
03:57to the OMS.
04:17In the first time, we have let us experiment the solution ourselves by using the text and
04:27see the text to be directly translated in a language of sign in real time.
04:32And they really recognized it because they could understand what was said, they recognized
04:38this language of sign and they could understand what they had learned in the school.
04:44So, after that, we went to a second stage, in a second phase where we showed how the solution
04:51is functional, it will be operational on YouTube.
04:55And what we have done is, first of all, we started with a French course.
04:58And we activated the extension of the navigator on Google Chrome.
05:03And everything that was written in the course was directly translated in English instantaneously.
05:07And they understood very well.
05:10And they understood very well.
05:30And they understood very well.
05:38And then we formed some words there were four months from the past over ten years …
05:57And two different things those that were created all around their country.
06:06There are two, yes.
06:09You're right.
06:13Thank you for the gesture.
06:19We were talking with a woman in a house during their meeting
06:25and they were really impressed by that
06:27because they understood the sign language, the gesture.
06:33All the sense was said.
06:34We were going through this solution.
06:40What we give us today,
06:43are the sous-titros.
06:45We call it accessibility.
06:48With this language of sign, with the extension of the navigator,
06:51they understood the film.
06:53They wanted to follow more.
06:55We're going to hear it.
06:59We're going to hear it.
06:59We're going to hear it in French.
07:02We use it in the morning.
07:05And I leave you with the super-prof, Pierre.
07:09In the description of the video,
07:13because you will have all the course well organized.
07:15And she...
07:15...
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