United by a common language: technology for the hearing impaired

Communication is what makes the human connection stronger. In a world where connecting with others is becoming simpler and faster, there are people who still struggle to deliver their ideas. For those individuals, four daring social innovators have a solution. Abdel Razzak, Mahmoud, Mariam, and Mohamad decided to launch a new initiative aiming to help people with hearing impairments.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over 466 million people suffer from moderate, severe or profound hearing impairments, which can lead to difficulties in hearing conversational speech.

At the level of our country Lebanon, several initiatives are implemented to spread awareness and help hearing-impaired individuals to overcome their disability and become active members of the society. DOT Lebanon from their side, are delivering through the Generation of Innovation Leaders (GIL) by Unicef, advanced digital workshops aiming to unleash impactful innovations in Lebanon. 

Earlier this year, DOT Lebanon delivered a mobile application development training in Tripoli, north of Lebanon where a group of four friends, Abdel Razzak, Mahmoud, Mariam, and Mohamad participated to improve their technical skills. 

In common, they had a friend that suffered from a hearing impairment, and through the knowledge, they picked up in this course they aimed to help their friend to communicate easily with others. The result was Hand Alphabet App, a mobile application for patients that simplifies communication with hearing impaired individuals by providing three main functions:

• Learning sign language: This allows users to develop their sign language skills to better communicate with hearing-impaired individuals.
• Testing your sign language abilities: This allows users to test their knowledge through multiple choice questions.
• A reader: Where hearing impaired individuals can write their message & the mobile application will read it out loud.

“We want to help every hearing impaired individual, starting with our friend and then everyone else!” said one of the developers.

This story is part of the Generation of Innovation Leaders (GIL) Program by UNICEF implemented by DOT Lebanon with the funding of the German and Deutsch embassies in Lebanon.