The Rep

Call support for those with hearing loss

MTN piloting new relay service

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With the goal of serving South Africans who are living with hearing loss, MTN is piloting an innovative national relay service (NRS) which harnesses the power of technology to enable these users to make and receive phone calls.

Depending on the type of call, an operator will speak, type or use sign language when facilitati­ng calls for or between deaf, hard of hearing or deafblind South Africans.

Together with Convo SA, a deafowned company, the pilot project expands communicat­ion access for those who otherwise would not be able to communicat­e via voice call, audio or video.

Users of MTN’s NRS service will be able to independen­tly make calls to friends and family, business services and other organisati­ons without having to rely on someone else to place calls for them.

The NRS user will connect with a communicat­ions assistant, registered and trained by Convo, who will facilitate the call in real-time.

“Importantl­y, contacting critical emergency, fire and medical services is more efficient and far quicker than before for over 2.8-million South Africans living with hearing disabiliti­es or speech impairment, and 235,000 South African sign language users”, Cornelia Van Heerden, MTN SA’s chief customer service and operations officer, said.

Over the next four months, MTN and Convo, which has a strong trackrecor­d in advocating for and serving SA’s deaf community, will be testing the effectiven­ess of the service with 100 members of the deaf and hardof-hearing community.

“Our purpose as Africa’s largest telecommun­ications network is to extend the benefits of a modern connected life to everyone,” Van Heerden said.

Braam Jordaan, Convo Global’s CEO, is a deaf South African who was awarded the Order of the Baobab by President Cyril Ramaphosa in 2019.

Following his award, Jordaan advocated for SA to launch an NRS which led to the Independen­t Communicat­ion Authority of SA to mandate telecommun­ications companies to increase telecommun­ications access for the deaf community, a call Van Heerden says MTN was only happy to answer.

“As the largest deaf-owned and deaf-led company, Convo has a unique ability in creating solutions for challenges that we have experience­d first-hand,” Jordaan said.

“Our deaf and hard of hearing employees, who are both consumers of our service and our engineers, work with interprete­rs in a special partnershi­p that is unmatched.

“The multi-faceted experience­s and perspectiv­es of all our employees help guide Convo’s innovation,” he said.

“Inspired by SA’s potential, at MTN SA we have been dedicated to bridging the digital divide and enabling our customers to be fully connected and realised individual­s who can achieve everything they put their minds to.

“Together with Convo, we are excited to be increasing telecommun­ications access to South Africans with hearing loss,” Van Heerden added.

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