Integrating Culturally Sensitive Communication into Ambient Assisted Living Technologies for Elderly Care in Africa: A Case Study of Nigeria.

Ageing populations and under-resourced health systems in Nigeria expose critical gaps in continuous, affordable elder care, exacerbated by language and cultural barriers in imported digital health tools. This paper presents a case study and proof of concept Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) platform that embeds culturally sensitive, indigenous language communication within a low-cost, locally manufacturable IoT architecture. The system combines wearable and ambient sensors (vital signs, motion, CO₂, temperature, security) with edge analytics for real-time fusion, anomaly detection, and context-aware decision support. A multilingual action layer delivers alerts, reminders, and care coordination messages to older adults, families, and clinicians in Yoruba, Igbo, or Hausa via voice, SMS, and app notifications, with role-based routing and privacy-preserving data management. Built on open source hardware/software and designed for intermittent power and connectivity, the solution prioritises data sovereignty, maintainability, and cost control. A day in the life smart home scenario demonstrates feasibility: synchronous sensor fusion identifies health and environmental events, triggers appropriate responses (e.g., ventilation, secondary checks), and issues intelligible, language-adapted guidance that supports timely action and user engagement. Contributions include: (1) a Nigeria-centric AAL reference architecture integrating indigenous language TTS/IVR; (2) edge-first analytics that reduce latency, bandwidth, and privacy risk; and (3) a pathway for local fabrication and scale aligned with national digital economy goals. Findings indicate that culturally adapted communication is pivotal to the acceptance, safety, and effectiveness of elder care technologies in multilingual African settings. Keywords: Ambient Assisted Living, IoT, elderly care, indigenous languages, culturally sensitive communication, edge computing, Nigeria, data sovereignty, low cost design, human centred AI. Journal Reference Format: Alagbe Oluwatobi O, (2025): Integrating Culturally Sensitive Communication into Ambient Assisted Living Technologies for Elderly Care in Africa: A Case Study of Nigeria.. Journal of Behavioural Informatics, Digital Humanities and Development Res. Vol. 11 No. 3. Pp 1-22.. https://www.isteams.net/behavioralinformaticsjournal. dx.doi.org/10.22624/AIMS/BHI/V11N3P1