They have created an organization called Global Sign, a consulting agency that helps mainstream organizations make themselves more accessible to the deaf and hard-of-hearing.  Global Sign recently won the first prize in the 32nd annual Burton Morgan Business Model Competition at Purdue University.

Heya Kaakeh, a senior in Mechanical Engineering, is the CEO.  “Originally we wanted this to be a non-profit,” she said, “but the more feedback we received, the more we realized it would be difficult to fund long-term.  So we decided to turn it into a company that could be self-sustaining.”

The motivation came from Yasmeen Hafeez, a senior studying supply chain in the Krannert School of Management.  “I have a younger brother who is severely hard-of-hearing,” she said.  “Since his diagnosis, my family and I have become really involved in the deaf community.”  Yasmeen even helped her mother start a non-profit called Deaf Kids Code, which teaches deaf students computer science and technology.  Heya and Yasmeen teamed up with Heya’s sister Seba, a biochemistry major in the College of Agriculture, and began to lay the foundations for Global Sign.

Providing Solutions

The first step in identifying the problem might not seem obvious to mainstream audiences.  While closed captioning is common on television and some online videos, deaf people often struggle to fully understand, because they think and communicate in American Sign Language (ASL).  “For many deaf people, English is not their first language,” said Yasmeen.  “Concepts are communicated very differently in ASL, so just having captions isn’t enough.”  This is especially true in complex areas like math and science, making it very difficult for deaf people to succeed in these areas.

In 2016, the team got in contact with the online learning organization Khan Academy.  Their goal was to translate specific educational videos -- in this case, about the topic of Javascript coding -- into ASL, with a sign language interpreter overlaid on the screen.  Khan Academy provided them administrative rights to post ASL videos, and the team created a crowdfunding project called 1000 Videos for the Deaf to promote the idea.  They soon discovered how difficult it was to locate interpreters, write out the scripts, film the videos, proof the results, integrate the finished product into Khan Academy’s system, and then repeat the process a thousand times.  It became clear that many mainstream organizations have similar troubles adapting their communications to deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences, despite advances in technology.

Global Sign serves as the solution: a bridge between companies who want to adapt their content using sign language, and a worldwide pool of interpreters and producers who actually deliver that content.

For Heya, her engineering background played a vital role in establishing Global Sign.  “Purdue Engineering emphasizes human-centered design, where the customer comes first,” she said.  “We focused on getting connected with deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals, so that we could make the best decisions for our business.  We received feedback from the National Technical Institute for the Deaf on what the video format should be.  They also had a pipeline of students who were willing to test our videos.  We had people around the world emailing us, ‘When is this project going to be done? We’re super excited about it!’”

They also reached out to Yasmeen’s colleagues at Krannert School of Management to assist with building a viable business model.  “I didn’t have a lot of experience setting the costs for things, or knowing what revenue models should be,” admits Heya.  “Eventually, we came up with something I was super proud to present in front of people.”

Winning Business

Heya, Seba, and Yasmeen presented their plans for Global Sign at Purdue’s Burton Morgan Business Model Competition, which promotes student entrepreneurship.  “It was a little intimidating talking to these businesspeople, especially because this was a project that comes from our hearts,” said Yasmeen.  “But I could tell by their reactions that they weren’t aware of this issue, and they saw that there is clearly a need for an organization like ours.”

“The great thing about Burton Morgan is that they gave us feedback all the way through,” said Seba.  “It’s not just giving your 10 minutes, and then you’re done; it was a learning process as we went along.”

And then came the giant check.  “We were so surprised to win!” said Heya.  “We were competing with graduate students and research labs, and so we walked in just laughing about it.”  In the Social Entrepreneurship category, Global Sign won first place, and a $15,000 prize.  They also received the Li Family Prize for Social Innovation, netting an additional $5,000.

Heya sees a bright future for Global Sign, and is appreciative of the mentors that came alongside to helped their team: Nusaybah Abumulaweh, Shireen Hafeez, Steven Dunlop, Greg Beaver, Ishan Mehta, and Heidi Parker.  She also emphasizes how creating a business plan helped her engineering education.  “You can come up with all sorts of ideas, but they’ll just stay in the lab unless you learn how to present them,” she said.  “Creating a business model really impacts your design, because it helps you figure out your costs upfront.  It’s important to know the business aspects of your ideas, in order for them to be successful.”

Writer: Jared Pike, jaredpike@purdue.edu, 765-496-0374

Source: Heya Kaakeh, hkaakeh@purdue.edu