Kilimanjaro Blind Trust Africa Performance Summary

This report, developed by Global Disability Innovation Hub and 60 Decibels, explores more about Kilimanjaro Blind Trust Africa (KBTA) customers, their profiles, outcomes and experiences – looking at key performance and impact metrics to discover customer loyalty, feedback and overall impact to lives. The insights are based on phone interviews with 72 beneficiaries conducted by 60 Decibels trained researchers.

KBTA provides access to digital Braille literacy and life skills to children and young adults with visual impairment and deaf-blindness. They serve over 3000 learners across 200 schools in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda, and have been working with children and young adults with visual impairments in Africa for over a decade.

Overall, KBTA has demonstrated impressive performance with its assistive technology product, the Orbit Reader 20. The outreach efforts have been successful in reaching a large proportion of users who accessed the product for the first time, indicating the high level of impact and satisfaction among its beneficiaries.

The positive impact of the Orbit Reader 20 on users’ quality of life, confidence, and independence is evident, as most users reported a significant decrease in the need for a caregiver of family member. The product also had broader benefits beyond the individual user, such as improved peer interaction, reading ability, and quality of work.

Despite the positive outcomes, there are areas for improvement such as accessibility and better support mechanisms. More than half of the users reported experiencing challenges, and a significant proportion of these had unresolved issues. Check out the full report below.