BEACON CHAT

Fostering Inclusion through Connectivity

Lower understanding of sign language has left the Deaf community marginalized and unable to access basic health care services. This has been attributed to the fact that Global Hearing aid production only reaches 10% of the deaf population (446 Million) and the number of trained sign language translators is inadequate to serve the current deaf population. This has hugely contributed to the increasing losses of deaf lives in hospitals, an example being

Alfred Weinrib, an 83-year Cancer Stricken Deaf person who died without even knowing his diagnosis after 3 hospitals failed to provide a sign language interpreter for 7 months. There are a lot of people like Alfred, his story is a testament to the problems more than 464 Million Deaf individuals around the world go through on their daily lives.

Unveiling Beacon Chat, a mobile application that catalyzes Internet of Things to provide an inclusive communication platform for both deaf and hearing individuals, applying Natural Language Processing to translate between sign language and text. This way, individuals like Alfred can access basic health care without the need of a sign language interpreter, reducing the cost of accessing health care by 94% from $150/hour to $9/lifetime.  Moreover, Beacon Chat integrates with other Health & Fitness Internet of Things devices, capturing patient data that is critical for diagnosis and treatment.

Our impact is aligned with the achievement of sustainable development goals where, by facilitating access of sexual and reproductive information to disabled women in underserved areas we help in achievement of Goal 5: GENDER EQUALITY, and 10 REDUCED INEQUALITY.

While piloting in Kenya with just a Minimum Viable Product, Beacon Chat managed to empower more than 1600 deaf lives. One of our success stories is Atieno, a deaf girl who works at a local VCT Center in Nairobi, Kenya. In her daily role she interacts with more than 50 youth seeking sexual and reproductive health consultation. Through Beacon Chat, she is able to attend to her patients without the need of a sign language interpreter. Beacon Chat opened up Atieno’s life in more ways than imagined, giving her a chance to partake in the achievement of Universal Health Coverage and also a means to sustain her career as a result we help achieve Goal 3: Health and Well Being and Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities.

I used to be a House Music DJ, inspired by likes of International artists like Avicii and Kanye West, to me Djing felt like the most fulfilling thing to do in the entire world until I suffered partial hearing loss. I stopped playing fearing that the condition would worsen. Unable to communicate with my peers efficiently, I felt disempowered and isolated not knowing what to do. I learnt application development via YouTube and later 1st version of Beacon Chat to aid me with basic communication and however, it is Alfred Weinrib story that made me pursue Beacon Inclusive later used the funds gained from accumulation of my internship stipends to bootstrap Beacon Inclusive.

Beacon Chat is innovative in that it is universally designed to cater for the needs of deaf and mainstream society, making it inclusive and with the half of the worlds population is still offline, left behind and unable to enjoy benefits that come with internet adoption like telemedicine; Beacon Chat helps these marginalized communities to access health care since it operates regardless of WIFI or Network Coverage, these way we are able to reduce the cost of accessing health care for Deaf Culture from 150/hour to $9/lifetime

Our solution catalyzes both Bluetooth Internet of Things framework and Artificial Intelligence to provide an inclusive communication platform that operates at no cost regardless of Network or WIFI coverage to facilitate access to health care for marginalized communities

We are targeting to scale impact to 100,000 deaf users with adoption in over 200 Health Institutions Centers across Kenya. Moreover, based on the feedback we received from our customers during pilot, we are have incorporated it into product development to make Beacon Chat more People Centered.

In the next three years we envision to have traversed across Eastern Africa, impacting more than 1.5 Million members of deaf community in this region and also have Beacon Chat adopted in more than 3000 Health Care facilities that lack sign language interpreters in the region.

We implement a freemium revenue model where we provide the basic plan at no cost while charging a fee for the premium package, and to acquire customers we partner with Regional and International NGO and Health Institutions Networks, this way we can scale quickly, reaching a wide base of Health Care Institutions and Deaf community members with ease.

While piloting in Kenya, we empower more than 1600 deaf lives. One of our success stories is Atieno, a deaf girl who works at a local VCT Center in Nairobi, Kenya. In her daily role she interacts with more than 50 youth seeking sexual and reproductive health consultation. Through Beacon Chat, she is able to attend to her patients without the need of a sign language interpreter. Beacon Chat opened up Atieno’s life in more ways than imagined, giving her a chance to partake in the achievement of Universal Health Coverage and also a means to sustain her career

Come July 2019, we are looking to serve more than 100,000 deaf lives, facilitating accessibility of Quality Health Care for them by having more than 200 Health Care facilities that lack sign language interpreters adopting it. Already we are on route to close a partnership deal with Liverpool VCT that will see Beacon Chat’s roll out in over 50 Health Care facilities across Kenya.

1.5 Million across United Kingdom, with adoption in over 3000 Health Care facilities. 

Relationship Management, Leadership, Software Engineering, Public Health and Deaf Community Engagement.

A Freemium Revenue Model where we offer the basic plan (has translation feature) at no cost while we charge a fee for the Premium package (comes with extra Internet of Things features for tracking personal health care), these way, we can sustain the enterprise in the long run. Health Institutions are required to provide a suitable means of communication for deaf during diagnosis, and for long they have depended on Sign Language Interpreters charging hefty hourly translation fees. Some hospitals can’t afford the charges and thus set policy not to attend to deaf patients and this resulted to loss of lives and further law suits filed by deaf individual family. There is truly need for Beacon Chat in the society and by charging health care institutions a significant subscription fee, we will be a sustain the enterprise.  

Solve represents a network of social entrepreneurs who believe in using their skills in making the world a better place. I am applying to solve since it has always been my belief that I can use my skills to do good and Solve shares same values I embody. Through solve, I will be able to network with other social entrepreneurs from different parts of the world that are driving change in a different way. From the solves community, I see opportunities of collaboration in scaling impacts across different regions and also opportunities for investment to scale the impact. 

Lack of seed funding, and mentorship on business development, relationship management. Through Solves network of its Alumni, I would like support in partnerships with other organizations and also organization support and Grant Funding access that will enable us seed fund our project.