Ghana Developer Reworks Assistive AI for African Users

In Short

• Emmanuel Quartey, a Ghanaian software developer, is focusing on assistive AI tools designed for African users.
• The push came after he temporarily lost hearing in one ear in February 2024.
• He is applying skills in computer vision and AI to accessibility, which means technology that helps people with disabilities use devices and services.

What Happened

Emmanuel Quartey is rethinking assistive AI for African users after a personal health scare changed his priorities. In February 2024, he temporarily lost hearing in one ear. Simple conversations became harder, and daily life took more effort.

A friend then asked him a direct question, “Imagine it was your eyes. What would you do?” That prompt nudged him toward assistive technology, tools built to help people who are blind, deaf, or have other impairments navigate the world.

Quartey was an Information Technology student at Pentecost University in Ghana at the time. He was already experimenting with computer vision and artificial intelligence. Computer vision is AI that “sees” through cameras, like how a phone identifies faces or reads text from an image.

Before this shift, he had worked on automation systems, robotics projects, and agricultural technology. Assistive products were not on his roadmap. Now he is applying those same skills to accessibility problems that often look different in Africa, due to language variety, device constraints, and uneven connectivity.

Why It Matters

Most mainstream assistive AI tools are built and tested in North America and Europe. That can lead to weak performance for African accents, local languages, and real world conditions like low light, noisy streets, and low cost Android phones.

Quartey’s story also points to a wider opportunity in African tech. Accessibility is often treated as a “nice to have,” but it is a large market and a basic requirement for digital inclusion. If more builders design for people with disabilities from the start, products can become easier for everyone to use, including older users and first time internet users.

For founders and investors, assistive AI is a practical category to watch. It sits at the intersection of health, education, and consumer tech, and it benefits directly from improvements in on device AI and speech and vision models.