Amina Jamal

Kenyan disability rights advocate pioneering accessible tech solutions in East Africa

Amina Jamal (b.1989) is a deaf-blind Kenyan innovator who created East Africa's first braille-tactile mapping system for visually impaired urban navigation. As founder of Tactile Africa Solutions (2014), she developed the UrbanPath system - a combination of 3D-printed tactile maps and mobile app that uses vibration patterns to guide users through Nairobi's complex transit system.

Her breakthrough came during Kenya's 2017 accessibility law reforms, when she prototyped the AccessPoint platform, which now provides real-time accessibility audits for over 20,000 businesses in 8 East African cities. Jamal's team also created SignChat, an AI-powered sign language interpreter app with 15 local dialects, used by 300+ schools in Tanzania and Uganda.

In 2020 she launched Inclusive Works, a social enterprise placing disabled professionals in tech roles. Her TEDGlobal talk "Designing for 1 Billion" (2022) highlighted how inclusive tech benefits all users. Jamal's work led to Kenya's 2023 mandatory accessibility guidelines for public infrastructure.

Despite lacking formal engineering training, she taught herself programming through online courses while advocating for education rights. Her blog series on disability innovation has been translated into 12 languages. Jamal's vision of "universal design" has inspired similar initiatives in Nigeria and South Africa.