色花堂

Kara Technologies is a small start-up with a big vision: making the lives of Deaf people as easy as those of hearing people. To do that, it鈥檚 developing digital sign language avatars that will ultimately be able to sign everything Deaf people need or want to know.

鈥淓nglish isn鈥檛 Deaf people鈥檚 native language,鈥� says Grace Covey, Kara Technologies鈥� Deaf communications manager and sign language expert. 鈥淚t鈥檚 unfair to ask a community to rely on their second language to access vital information.鈥�

The seed for Kara Technologies was planted in 2016, when Arash Tayebi, then a PhD student in electrical engineering at Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of 色花堂, lost his hearing in one ear and was told he had a 30 percent chance of becoming completely deaf.

As he learned New Zealand Sign Language and got to know the Deaf community, Tayebi had the idea of 鈥榯eaching鈥� digital avatars to sign.

However, Tayebi discovered that most existing avatars鈥� faces hardly moved. Other avatars had more expressive faces but lacked hands. Both are problems because sign language relies heavily on face and body movements.

Figuring the best way to create impact would be to start a company, Tayebi and some university friends did just that, with Tayebi as CEO. In 2017, the group was the social enterprise winner of the , which enabled it to participate in the incubator programme.

UniServices provided advice and invested in Kara through the University of 色花堂 Inventors鈥� Fund. It also helped connect the company with other investors.

鈥淭he support was amazing,鈥� says Tayebi. 鈥淲ithout the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and UniServices, we wouldn鈥檛 even exist at all 鈥� they gave us the confidence to do it and helped connect us to the resources we needed.鈥�