Making Technology Accessible: Ife Adebara’s Mission for African Languages
Adebara aims to bridge the language gap in technology accessibility for the African continent by focusing on African languages.
Ife Adebara, a programmer and scholar at the University of British Columbia’s linguistics department, is determined to make technology inclusive for all people in Africa. She believes that individuals who speak minority languages should not have to sacrifice their native languages to access technology in English. According to Adebara, this language disparity can lead to the endangerment of various languages. To combat this issue, she has initiated the Afrocentric Natural Language Processing project, which aims to provide accessible tools, programs, and awareness for individuals who speak African languages.
Afrocentric Natural Language Processing: Bridging the Gap
Adebara’s project focuses on developing AI technology that is accessible for speakers of African languages.
The main objective of the Afrocentric Natural Language Processing project is to ensure that African people can interact with technology in their indigenous languages. Adebara and her team are working on various African languages, with a current focus on 517 languages spoken in 50 out of 54 African countries. She acknowledges that there are over 2,000 languages on the continent, and her goal is to include as many of them as possible. These languages are often referred to as low-resource languages, meaning they lack sufficient data to build traditional language models for AI. Adebara is actively working to solve this challenge by combining multiple languages within the same model to enhance its performance.
The Importance of Inclusive Technology for African Languages
Adebara stresses the significance of including African languages in the development of technology.
Adebara emphasizes two key reasons why it is crucial to ensure African languages are not left behind in the advancement of technology. First, over one billion people in Africa, which constitutes approximately 17% of the global population, are excluded from worldwide conversations due to the language barrier. This lack of inclusivity prevents diverse perspectives from being heard and understood. Second, African languages possess distinct and diverse grammatical features that are unique to the continent. By excluding these languages from language technology development, certain language features are not being learned or incorporated, limiting the versatility of the models across different grammatical features.
The Future Impact of Technological Accessibility
Adebara envisions the widespread availability and accessibility of technology for average Africans, which would positively impact education and information access.
Adebara’s ultimate hope is for technology to become available and accessible to the average African. This would have profound and long-lasting effects on education and information access. Individuals would be able to access web content and health information in their own language, either through direct translations or by using platforms like Google Maps. Adebara believes that the integration of African languages into technology will not only empower individuals but also preserve linguistic diversity and foster global understanding.
Analyst comment
This is a positive news as it highlights the efforts of Ife Adebara to bridge the language gap in technology accessibility for African languages. The Afrocentric Natural Language Processing project aims to provide accessible tools, programs, and awareness for individuals who speak African languages. This will have a positive impact on education and information access in Africa, empowering individuals and preserving linguistic diversity. It is expected that with the inclusion of African languages in technology, there will be widespread availability and accessibility, leading to greater global understanding.
