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Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) tailored for African languages and speech diversity reaches Uganda.

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The Centre for Digital Language Inclusion (CDLI) has finalised its initiative to develop inclusive Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) models for people living with non-standard or impaired speech in African languages in Uganda. This effort aims to close the digital divide for people with speech impairments and marks a significant milestone, building on successful pilots in Ghana and Kenya.

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Uganda
28 Apr 26
Harrison Kamau

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) tailored for African languages and speech diversity reaches Uganda.

Kampala, Uganda  |  Tuesday, 28th April 2026

 

The Centre for Digital Language Inclusion (CDLI) has finalised its initiative to develop inclusive Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) models for people living with non-standard or impaired speech in African languages in Uganda. This effort aims to close the digital divide for people with speech impairments and marks a significant milestone, building on successful pilots in Ghana and Kenya.

ASR technology is transforming communication for people with speech difficulties, but most existing solutions are designed for English speakers and fail to address the linguistic diversity of Africa. Limited access to assistive technology and speech therapy further compounds this challenge. CDLI's project seeks to change that by collecting non-standard speech data in local languages and building culturally relevant ASR models tailored for Uganda.

This initiative, is co-funded by Google.org and part of the AT2030 Programme, led by UCL’s Global Disability Innovation Hub and its Centre for Digital Language Inclusion (CDLI) in collaboration with, Senses Hub, and Makerere Innovation and Incubation Center (MIIC). Technical support has been provided by Modal, whose GPU sponsorship is powering the development of the ASR models.

The data collection engaged 59 participants living with speech impairments in Uganda, creating a valuable dataset to train and refine ASR models. This was followed by a kickoff workshop at the Makerere Innovation and Incubation Centre (MIIC), Makerere University, bringing together 45 participants from academia, civil society, tech, and the disability community. 

All models, datasets, and tools will be open source, ensuring long-term impact and enabling further innovation.

"Inclusive speech technology must reflect the full diversity of human voices. When we build for those most often excluded, including people with speech impairments speaking African languages, we do not just close a gap. We build something genuinely better for everyone."

Prof Catherine Holloway, Director, UCL Global Disability Innovation Hub

The ASR Demo Day, Saturday 2nd May 2026, at MIIC, Makerere University, Kampala, marks the culmination of this work. Innovators will present their solutions to an audience of stakeholders, demonstrating what inclusive, locally grounded speech technology can look like in practice. To attend, please RSVP here.

Contact Details:

Frank Bakama‍

Communications and Marketing Officer

fbakama@miichub.com

Ivy Wambui

Communications Lead 

Senses Hub

ivy@senseshub.vision


Harrison Kamau

Communications and Engagement Executive Global Disability Innovation Hub (GDI Hub)
h.kamau@ucl.ac.uk

 

 

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Uganda
28 Apr 26
Harrison Kamau

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Update

Demo Day Uganda

The ASR Demo Day, Saturday 2nd May 2026, at MIIC, Makerere University, Kampala, marks the culmination of this work. Innovators will present their solutions to an audience of stakeholders, demonstrating what inclusive, locally grounded speech technology can look like in practice.

19 May 26
​
Uganda
News

Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) tailored for African languages and speech diversity reaches Uganda.

The Centre for Digital Language Inclusion (CDLI) has finalised its initiative to develop inclusive Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) models for people living with non-standard or impaired speech in African languages in Uganda. This effort aims to close the digital divide for people with speech impairments and marks a significant milestone, building on successful pilots in Ghana and Kenya.

28 Apr 26
​
Uganda
Update

Makerthon in Kenya

Twenty makers and four people with speech impairments worked together as co-designers not as separate groups of builders and testers. The result was assistive technology shaped by the people who actually need it.

09 Mar 26
​
Kenya
© 2026 CDLI. All rights reserved. Site by Fry
Accessibility
Accessibility, A11y
The design of technologies, services, and environments so they can be used by people with diverse abilities, including people with disabilities.
Assistive Technology
Assistive Technology
Tools or systems that help people with disabilities perform tasks more easily. Inclusive speech recognition can function as assistive technology for communication.
Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR)
Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), Automatic Speech Recognition, ASR
Technology that converts spoken language into written text. ASR enables devices and software to "understand" human speech and is used in tools such as voice assistants, transcription services, and accessibility technologies.
Community-Centred Design
Community-Centred Design, Community Centred Design
An approach that actively involves people who will use the technology in its design, development, and testing, ensuring solutions reflect real needs and lived experiences.
Data Annotation
Data Annotation
The process of labelling speech recordings with accurate text or metadata. Annotation helps machines learn how spoken words relate to written language.
Digital Language Inclusion
Digital Language Inclusion
The practice of ensuring that digital technologies recognise, understand, and support all ways people speak, including diverse languages, accents, and speech patterns.
Ethical Data Collection
Ethical Data Collection
The practice of collecting data with informed consent, transparency, privacy protection, and respect for participants' rights and dignity.
Inclusive AI
Inclusive AI
Artificial Intelligence systems designed to work fairly and effectively for people of different abilities, languages, and backgrounds, without excluding or disadvantaging certain groups.
Machine Learning
Machine Learning
A branch of AI that allows computer systems to learn patterns from data and improve their performance over time without being explicitly programmed for every task.
Non-Standard Speech
Non-Standard Speech
Speech that differs from what most speech recognition systems are trained on. This may include speech affected by disability, neurological conditions, injury, accent variation, or local language patterns.
Open-Source
Open-Source, opensource, open source
Software, data, or models that are freely available for anyone to use, study, modify, and share. CDLI promotes open-source approaches to accelerate inclusive innovation.
Speech Dataset
Speech Dataset
A structured collection of recorded speech samples and corresponding text. These datasets are used to train and improve speech recognition models.
Speech Impairment
Speech Impairment
A condition that affects a person's ability to produce clear or typical speech. This can be temporary or lifelong and may result from disability, illness, injury, or neurological differences.
Speech Model
Speech Model
A trained AI system that processes and recognises spoken language. Speech models improve as they are exposed to more diverse and representative speech data.
Under-Resourced Languages
Under-Resourced Languages, Under Resourced Languages
Languages that lack sufficient digital data, tools, or technological support. Many African languages fall into this category, making them poorly supported by mainstream speech technologies.
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