Imagine you couldn't write this entry. Or even write anything at all.

That was the reality for 60 million Fulani people spread across West Africa – not because they didn't have a language – but because they didn't have an alphabet or writing system.

The importance of ADLaM to this community was to preserve their own history, culture and language in their native tongue. Microsoft’s mission was to enable that preservation and ensure they could thrive in a modern and digital world.

There is no business benchmark to preserving a culture and language. We only know that when economies thrive, Microsoft benefits indirectly from the outsize benefits realized by the communities themselves. That is a long process we are committed to.

We had one objective: Access.

To expand digital access to the alphabet itself and to expand access to literacy and the impact on students learning the language.

An alphabet that fully reflects Fulani culture.

With the help of the Barry brothers, typeface experts and Fulani graphic culture specialists, we used real-time community feedback to rapidly revise outdated letterforms to create a new and optimized version.

Once letterforms took shape, we looked to take inspiration from rich Fulani visual culture. We researched hundreds of traditional khasas (blankets), arkillas (bed-screens), facial tattoos and decorative objects with unique patterned designs with historical and cultural significance. With guidance from the community, we ultimately incorporated the design “Kore Totte” (inverted calabashes) as a motif that resonated the most with the Fulani community.

We thus brought the community into the creative development ensuring the design itself represented not only how the alphabet evolved, but also to make the typeface a cultural artifact in its own right.

You need to work with communities when designing for communities.

Cultural missteps happen when you do things for a community without the community’s involvement. So we partnered closely with Abdoulaye and Ibrahima Barry and members of their teaching community to first understand why they had adoption issues with a previous digital alphabet. We uncovered that the letterforms had changed in the hands of the Fulani people. We uncovered a lack of standardized teaching materials. And we uncovered a keen urgency to make permanent almost 3 decades of work on ADLaM.

Amplifying the Barry’s voices within their social community.

The ADLaM alphabet was a lifelong effort of the Barry brothers. They had built a global social network and community of local grassroots teachers and community members looking to drive alphabet adoption. Our mission was to amplify their voices and provide digital tools and announcements their community could use immediately.

Imagine you couldn't write this entry. Or even write anything at all.

That was the reality for the 60 million Fulani people spread across West Africa, not because they didn't have a language, but because they didn't have an alphabet or writing system.

Without an alphabet, illiteracy thrived. The importance of ADLaM to this community was to preserve their own history, culture and language in their native tongue.

For the Fulani, the alphabet wasn’t just a tool for expression, but an operating system for survival.

Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization around the world to achieve more. In this case, Microsoft’s mission was to ensure the Fulani people had access to digital ecosystems – to preserve their language and culture – but also to have a future in the digital economy.

Our challenge… help update an alphabet and increase adoption.

Alphabets typically take hundreds of years to evolve into their final form. After speaking with the brothers and the larger community, we understood that there were adoption issues with an earlier digital version of the alphabet because the alphabet was changing in the hands of the people. Major revisions were needed.

We formed a multifaceted partnership to revise the alphabet.

With the help of the Barry brothers, typeface experts and Fulani graphic culture specialists, we sped up that process using real-time community feedback to rapidly revise outdated letterforms to create a new and optimized version, one that would help to prepare future generations of the Fulani for a modern world.

A typeface inspired by their rich visual culture.

We worked with the Fulani community to ensure their alphabet would reflect their full visual culture. We researched hundreds of traditional textile patterns and designs, using Fulani graphic elements from textiles in the final typeface.

Our own products were our most meaningful media channel.

We launched on over 1 billion devices around the world. Microsoft offered permanent global access to an alphabet – not an ad campaign – a true transformative commitment for the Fulani people. The alphabet and typeface, ADLaM Display, is now embedded within Microsoft 365 applications like Outlook and Word reaching over 1 billion devices around the world.

An open source alphabet shared with Google to drive access beyond our channels.

Access for the Fulani community could not just be limited to Microsoft devices. Microsoft shared the ADLaM Display typeface with Google, who made it available on their Google Fonts platform.

Educational materials were developed to teach and preserve ADLaM.

As we opened up access, we concentrated on adoption. Working with the brothers, we created and distributed books to learn to read and write the alphabet in ADLaM schools to move from the chalkboard to the books and computers.

Our efforts centered on global access, educational materials, press and direct community engagement on social media.

The global typeface was directly distributed to the community in 2022 and made available on over 1 billion devices in 2023. It was then made open source and ultimately published on Google Fonts.

Teaching materials were published digitally and distributed directly to schools in Guinea to standardize teaching.

Press focused global attention and support for ADLaM, with impacts felt in communities expressing desires to learn, and also with governments looking to embrace teaching it in public schools.

Because the Fulani community is so widespread, social media underpinned all grassroots communication. All progress updates were led by the brothers and directly communicated to the community in social media. Impacts and momentum were immediate. Businesses began embracing the new typeface, posting photos of their products and the community even began crowdsourcing a social dictionary.

Expanding literacy for the Fulani people was ROI enough. Results have been astounding considering the time frame.

ADLaM Display is on over 1 billion devices around the world that run Microsoft 365.

Our open source alphabet is now on Google Fonts and was used over 2.18 million times (April 14, 2023).

New Schools Opened in 5 Countries in 2023-2024 (Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cote d'Ivoire and The Gambia).

ADLaM will be taught to 2 million students in Guinea in the next 5 years as part of the government’s Sustainable Development Strategy.

Mali is adding ADLaM as an official alphabet in their Constitution which will expand access to teaching it in public schools.

The community embraced the alphabet with an online dictionary with #ADLaMRe and used the alphabet in local businesses.

ADLaM Display will impact other languages - the Bambara, Bozo and Dogon languages share phonology and syntax with Pulaar.