Kenyan Start-Up Develops Robotic Arms to Help Deaf Children Learn

A Nairobi-based start-up, ZeroBionic, has developed a robotic hand that translates spoken language into sign language in real time, aiming to improve education for deaf children in Kenya.

Of the roughly 300,000 Kenyan children with hearing impairments, only 20,000 were enrolled in school as of 2024, according to the Kenya Society for Deaf Children. ZeroBionic’s device lets deaf students follow lessons alongside hearing peers by converting a teacher’s voice into signs.

At Kasarani Treeside Secondary School for the Deaf in Nairobi, deaf teachers are also using the robotic arms – paired with a motion-capture bodysuit – to record signs and build a database of technical vocabulary drawn from English, American, and Kenyan sign languages. The effort addresses a longstanding gap: Kenya lacks a standardized sign language, and many students rely on improvised signs that omit key academic terms in subjects like math and biology.

“No one else had built this on the continent,” said Norah Kimathi, 22, ZeroBionic’s co-founder. “We had to start from scratch.”

Each robotic hand costs about US$350, lasts up to two years, and is now used in 78 Kenyan schools. ZeroBionic says the technology achieves 92 percent accuracy in converting speech to sign.