Uganda · Open market · Operating partnership
Access on this page: Signed: Ugandan Sign Language — pending How this page is tested
This page in sign language
Signed end to end by a Deaf creator, credited by name. International Sign on the global site; your national sign language on your country page.
ally is a platform where creators make sign language, captions and audio description — and one API delivers it to any screen. We are looking for the partner who will build the Ugandan operation with us.
Why we are looking for a partner
One partner video — spoken, captioned and signed by a creator we already work with. It is shared across every open-market page. We do not fake a local signer to look established here.
The people
Uganda's sign language is Ugandan Sign Language (USL). The 1995 Constitution's Objective XXIV directs the State to promote the development of a sign language for the Deaf — a recognition won by the Uganda National Association of the Deaf and among the first anywhere. The Persons with Disabilities Act 2020, section 12(4), requires every television station to provide sign language insets in all newscasts.
In plain words
Below is who lives here and what reaches them. Every number on this page is a research seed, not an audited claim — we mark them, rather than publish numbers we cannot yet stand behind.
Why captions alone do not close this gap → Why sign language
The mandate
in force 8 October 1995: the State shall promote the development of a sign language for the deaf.
an owner or person in charge of a television station shall provide or cause to be provided sign language insets in all newscasts; government shall promote sign language and interpreters in all public institutions and at all government functions.
many broadcasters without interpreters at newscasts and no licence suspended as a consequence.
Obligated buyers: every television station under section 12(4), public institutions and government functions under the Act's sign-language promotion duty, and the State under Objective XXIV.
The gap
Uganda's duty is explicit and unenforced: 'all newscasts' is the law, many stations carry none, and no licence has been suspended. The gap is not the statute, which is among the clearest on this site, but the consequence. A partner who can supply the insets removes the excuse a regulator has accepted for five years.
What we bring
These are patterns, not promises — each one happened somewhere, and each carries its source. The place is abstracted because the pattern is what transposes.
Pattern
A replicable template: the ordinance language, the budget logic and the service behind it travel together. Any city can copy it.
Two city ordinances — one on healthcare accessibility, one on cinema accessibility — have passed first reading, with ally as technical partner.
Receipt: Parañaque City Council records
Pattern
The platform exists before the first contract. Buyers pay for a service, not for research.
ally's pre-operating research and development was supported by a national science research grant and a city government grant.
Receipt: company fact
Pattern
Real usage, real feedback, and the model for any school or district that wants signed content on what students already watch.
A telco-funded 2021 pilot brought the platform to a Deaf school community of about 800 users.
Receipt: company fact
We publish our signals — including the zeros — on the impact page.
The partnership
The structure is a licensed market operation, built with the local community. Terms are discussed directly.
The playbook
The partner
Operators with standing in accessibility, media, telecom, or government services. Deaf-led organisations and entrepreneurs are explicitly welcome — the best operator of an accessibility market may come from the community itself. Investors are welcome alongside an operator, or to introduce one.
Why now
The 2020 Act is five years old and the breach is public — reported in the press in September 2025. Enforcement, when it comes, will need a supplier. A partner with USL delivery ready is the difference between a licence suspension and a signed bulletin.
Next step
Write to us — by form, by email, or with a signed or spoken video message. From there: an introductory call, an NDA, the Ugandan market dossier, then terms.
Questions