AI4DeafBlind.org is a nonprofit at the intersection of artificial intelligence and disability inclusion. We build open-source, offline-capable AI tools that enable real-time communication for DeafBlind individuals — people with combined vision and hearing loss — in educational and community settings around the world.

Our flagship project: Speech2Braille & Braille2Speech

We developed an end-to-end Speech2Braille pipeline that converts a teacher's spoken words into Braille output in real time, running entirely offline on affordable hardware. Using a fine-tuned version of OpenAI's Whisper Tiny model — trained on Indonesian speech data from the GigaSpeech2 dataset — we reduced the Word Error Rate from 47.95% to below 20% over 100,000 training steps. The system was field-tested at Helen Keller Indonesia, one of the country's leading schools for DeafBlind students.

This means a teacher can speak naturally. A student reads along on a refreshable Braille display. A DeafBlind student can response by typing through their Perkins Keyboard.  No internet required. No expensive infrastructure. No intermediary.

Our mission: Innovation · Empowerment · Inclusion

We believe AI should work for everyone — including those at the intersection of disability and under-resourced communities. Our work is grounded in three principles:
• Innovation — pushing the frontier of accessible, offline AI.
• Empowerment — strengthening the direct teacher–student connection.
• Inclusion — ensuring that language, geography, and disability are not barriers to education.

Global Collaboration

Our team spans the US and Indonesia: AI scientists, engineers, interns from the University of Washington and Washington State University, and Indonesian software engineers. We build with communities, not just for them.

We are seeking partnerships with organizations working in DeafBlind education, assistive technology, and disability advocacy worldwide. If that's you — let's connect.


AI4DeafBlind.org

Org chart

Teams

Offices

AI4DeafBlind.org

Org chart

Teams

Offices

Related companies