Student develops tech device to break disability barriers

The condition left him partially paralysed and dependent on a wheelchair for nearly a year, a period he describes as both physically painful and mentally demanding.

During that time, he spent much of his life between hospital wards and physiotherapy sessions, including treatment at Tanzanord Hospital, where an encounter would later redefine his sense of purpose.

With movement restricted and student life abruptly interrupted, Mr Msonge says he made a conscious decision not to allow the setback to silence his ambitions. Instead, he turned the period of recovery into a learning opportunity, teaching himself technology-related skills using his smartphone and the internet.

Through online courses, YouTube tutorials and guidance from friends studying computer science, he spent months learning coding, machine learning, embedded systems, the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI). What began as a coping mechanism soon became a disciplined learning routine.

“I was in a wheelchair for one year, and that time became my classroom,” he says.

A defining moment came during a physiotherapy session at Tanzanord Hospital, where he encountered a young man with hearing and speech impairments struggling to communicate using sign language. Despite his visible distress, no one present could understand him, and no sign language interpreter was available.

“I realised his message was not ignored because it lacked importance, but because society lacked the tools to listen,” Mr Msonge recalls.

The experience prompted deeper reflection on the exclusion faced by people with disabilities, particularly in education, healthcare and employment. From that moment, he resolved to develop a device capable of translating sign language into spoken words.

In December 2024, after returning to university following a one-year academic break, Mr Msonge began practical experiments on what would later become SmartGlove, a wearable assistive device designed to translate sign language into speech in real time. By then, although not fully recovered, his condition had improved significantly.

Before developing SmartGlove, he had experimented with other technology solutions, including the Nyumbani App, a digital platform intended to help people rent houses without brokers, which ultimately failed.

He also developed a Smart Radio inspired by voice assistants such as Alexa, experiences he says helped sharpen his problem-solving skills.

SmartGlove uses flex sensors on each finger and an inertial measurement unit (IMU) to detect hand movements and gestures. The data is processed through an ESP32 microcontroller, which converts sign language into text and transmits it via Bluetooth to a mobile application.

The application then converts the text into speech, allowing users to select voice type, adjust volume and control pitch. The current version of SmartGlove has achieved an accuracy rate of about 80 per cent based on trained data. The prototype has been tested by 20 deaf users from the Tanzania Association of the Deaf (TAD) popularly known by its Swahili name Chama cha Viziwi Tanzania (CHAVITA), 10 deaf students at TIA and one individual with speech impairment.

Feedback from users has highlighted the need to make the device fully standalone, as it currently depends on a smartphone due to limited tools and equipment to embed voice output directly into the glove.

Despite these limitations, the innovation has already attracted recognition. In December 2025, Mr Msonge and his team won the IBI Innovation Competition, clinching the Best Innovation award. Buoyed by this progress, he established God’s Plan Technologies (GPT), a start-up focused on developing assistive technologies to ensure that no person with disability is left behind. Through the company, he has also developed Friend Cane, an intelligent walking cane that provides voice navigation and obstacle detection for people with visual impairments.

Looking ahead, Mr Msonge says the goal is to deploy SmartGlove in public institutions such as hospitals, schools and workplaces, including job interview settings, to ensure people with hearing and speech impairments are not denied services due to communication barriers.

He notes that Tanzania has an estimated 500,000 deaf people but only about 300 certified sign language interpreters, a gap that continues to limit access to essential services and education.

“Our vision is to reach every person with disability,” he says. “Within the next three years, we want to scale our solutions beyond Tanzania to other East African countries.” For Mr Msonge, the journey from wheelchair to innovation lab is proof that adversity can spark purpose.

“They say necessity is the mother of invention,” he says. “What stopped me from walking for a time is now helping others to speak, move and be heard.”