KNUST Develops AI System to Bridge Ghanaian Sign Language Communication Gap in Healthcare
Researchers at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi (KNUST) have developed an artificial intelligence-powered system to improve communication between Ghanaian Sign Language users and healthcare professionals who do not understand sign language.
The system, known as SignTalk-Gh, is designed to address communication barriers faced by Deaf and hard-of-hearing patients, particularly during medical consultations.
Lead researcher Dr Emmanuel Ahene, a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Computer Science, KNUST, said the system was developed to help patients communicate their symptoms and better understand medical information.
“For many speech- and hearing-impaired people, communication can become a significant barrier to accessing health care, and SignTalk is using artificial intelligence to bridge this communication gap,” he said.
Dr Ahene said SignTalk-Gh uses artificial intelligence trained on Ghanaian Sign Language datasets to facilitate communication between sign language users and non-signers. The datasets provide the information required to train the system to recognise and interpret Ghanaian Sign Language.
He said the system can translate Ghanaian Sign Language captured through a camera or uploaded video into text and audio. It can also work in the reverse direction, enabling non-signers to communicate with sign language users.
The research team has gone beyond developing datasets to building a working Ghanaian Sign Language translation model tailored to doctor-patient communication in hospital consulting rooms.
The researchers said the technology could improve communication between healthcare professionals and Deaf and hard-of-hearing patients, particularly when a sign language interpreter is not readily available.
Dr Ahene said the team hoped SignTalk-Gh would help make healthcare communication in Ghana more accessible and inclusive for people with speech and hearing impairments.
“I changed the lead from ‘designed to facilitate communication’ to ‘to improve communication ‘, which is more direct and newsy. I also removed some repetition around the datasets and changed ‘specifically relevant to’ to ‘tailored to ‘, which reads more naturally in a news story.”
This project was carried out under the funding auspices of the Responsible AI Lab | RAIL via the Artificial Intelligence For Sustainable Development (AI4SD) project funded by the French Embassy in Ghana / Ambassade de France au Ghana and Agence Française de Développement (AFD), with support from FCDO, International Development Research Centre (IDRC), and Artificial Intelligence for Development (AI4D).
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