Miss-Delectable

http://www.istart.co.nz/index/HM20/AS3/CS26366

Axon has installed a nation-wide teleconferencing system at Workbridge that is connecting deaf job seekers with sign language interpreters who help facilitate employment opportunities...

A new teleconferencing system is making sign language interpreters widely available to deaf job seekers.

The new teleconferencing system is installed in 22 Workbridge offices around New Zealand. Workbridge’s mission is to enable people with disabilities to participate and experience equal opportunities in the labour market.

Pam Findlay, Workbridge’s Northern Regional Manager, says teleconferencing is the vital key to providing a nationwide interpreting service.

“Workbridge employs three fulltime sign language interpreters to better service the needs of our deaf clients generally,” she says.
“The interpreters are based in the main centres, but we have deaf clients all over the country. Teleconferencing gives us the capability to put interpreters in front of clients who live in smaller or more remote places. It means a deaf person living in Invercargill or Gisborne can access the same services as someone living in Christchurch or Auckland.”

For users at both ends, the process is very similar to making or answering a phone call.

Users dial the appropriate Workbridge office, which connects to Axon’s hosting centre in Christchurch, and from there to the call destination. The receiving office gets a message that connects the teleconference upon acceptance.

Axon implemented a dedicated network cable linked to a Sony 25” flatscreen TV with a camera mounted on top. Prior to implementation Axon increased bandwidth capacity by upgrading WAN fibre links between Telstra Clear and Workbridge offices. At the same time, Axon installed new routers in every office.

"The quality of both pictures and sound is very high,” Pam Findlay says. “We did have to experiment with background colours to throw the sign language into the sharpest possible relief. We’ve found that a very pale blue gives the clearest conversations.”


For more information on this case study contact:
Scott Green at Axon
scott.green@axon.co.nz

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