# DengeVoice Solution Description

**Track:** Legal & Public Services
**Live product:** https://dengevoice.vercel.app
**Author:** Kreativ-jae (Ukeje Chinaza Isaac)

## The Problem

Reporting a civic issue in Nigeria a broken streetlight, an unresponsive local official, a public safety concern usually means writing a formal complaint in English, often to an office that never responds. For millions of Nigerians who are more comfortable speaking than writing, or who naturally think and speak in a mix of English and their local language, this is a real barrier. People don't switch cleanly between languages when they talk; they blend Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, or Pidgin with English mid-sentence, the way conversation actually works. Most voice technology forces them to pick one language or gets confused by the mix so people either give up or have their words captured wrong.

## The Solution

DengeVoice lets a citizen **speak their complaint naturally**, in whichever mix of English and their own language feels normal, and turns it into a clear, submittable civic report without demanding they write formally or reset their language mid-sentence.

**Core flow:**
1. **Speak** the user records their complaint by voice, code-switching freely
2. **Review** Sahara's ASR transcribes the speech; the user sees the text back immediately
3. **Confirm or edit** if the transcription isn't quite right, the user edits it directly on the confirmation screen rather than re-recording from scratch; a "type instead" fallback is available everywhere voice is offered, so nobody is ever stuck
4. **Track** the submitted complaint can be followed through to resolution

## Why Sahara

DengeVoice's benchmark (see `benchmark_report.md`) tested Sahara against two alternative ASR engines Meta's open-source MMS and NCAIR/NITDA's language-specific fine-tuned models across all four of DengeVoice's core languages (Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, Nigerian Pidgin), each code-switched with English. **Sahara had the lowest error rate in every language tested**, which is why it powers the live product rather than a general-purpose or open-source alternative.

## Who This Serves

DengeVoice is built for anyone who wants to report a civic issue but is discouraged by the formality, language, or literacy barrier of traditional complaint channels market traders, commercial drivers, elderly citizens, and anyone more comfortable speaking than typing a formal report. By meeting people in the language they actually speak mixed, informal, and real DengeVoice removes a barrier that currently silences a large share of the population from participating in civic accountability.

## What's Built So Far

- Live, working voice-to-text complaint flow at the link above
- Sahara API integration across four Nigerian languages
- A rigorous, documented ASR benchmark validating the engine choice
- Confirmation/edit UX designed around real-world transcription imperfection, not assuming perfect ASR