Designing AI-Assisted and HCI-Driven Learning Solutions to Support Home-Based Learning for Students with Multiple Sensory Impairments (Blind and Mute) in Sub-Saharan Africa

Presenter: Serin Kitery

Faculty Sponsor: Amanda Potasznik

School: UMass Boston

Research Area: Computer Science

Session: Poster Session 3, 1:15 PM - 2:00 PM, 163, C3

ABSTRACT

Assistive technologies are products that enable individuals’ health, inclusion, and participation in society through the improvement of their functionality, including mobility, communication, vision, and hearing. In developed countries like the United States, substantial study and research of and with disabled populations has resulted in the strong development of assistive technologies. We see impressive design principles and advanced AI-assisted software on technologies for children with sensory disabilities in education, including tools like Described and Captioned Media Program(DCMP) online notetaker training module for deaf students, Braille displays and notetaker for visually impaired students, and text-to-speech software for mute students with personalized learning. However, in emerging markets like African countries, students with disabilities still face challenges in education. There are nearly 29 million children, mostly with physical and sensory disabilities, in Eastern and Southern Africa alone, and less than 10% of them attend schools. Those who do manage to attend school perform poorly on average in subjects like Mathematics and English that require reading. The demand is clearly high for improved inclusive education in African countries. This study aims to propose human-centered paradigms for AI-assisted tools that support home-based learning for students with visual and speech impairments in Sub-SaharanAfrican countries. This study explores interactive Human Computer Interaction(HCI) design principles, offline-first AI models, and multimodal interaction techniques that can allow education inclusivity and culturally appropriate assistive technologies for students in environments with limited infrastructure.