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Salt Lake Tribune - Expansion of services for the deaf announced
Sorenson Communications, a leading innovator and provider of video relay services, or VRS, expands into 17 new cities. It serves deaf and partially deaf clients in more than 50 metro areas.
VRS market potential is staggering, with only 10 percent of America's 28 million deaf and partially deaf having access to the service.
VRS equipment and services, paid for by telephone billing fees, are free. Sorenson Communications is expanding its popular video relay services for the deaf and partially deaf to 17 major cities.
President and CEO Pat Nola said Tuesday the move will add several hundred new jobs to the Salt Lake City company's workforce of more than 2,000 and extend video relay services, or VRS, to more than 50 major metropolitan areas.
Combined with the company's IP (Internet protocol) relay service, which allows hearing impaired users to place instant text-based relay calls from a PC or mobile device to any telephone user, Nola said Sorenson maintains its leadership momentum in a rapidly growing niche.
"This market is growing over 100 percent per year and our [services and hiring] are in line with that," he said. "Demand is so high because we offer the most functionally equivalent services for the deaf in their native sign language."
At more than a million VRS calls per month, Sorenson is acknowledged as the undisputed leader in a sector, though several national telephone companies and other VRS providers have entered the market recently.
Nola believes Sorenson's commitment to providing services and equipment that provides functionality most like that available for the hearing majority will keep it ahead. It is generally estimated that only 10 percent of the 28 million Americans with serious hearing losses have access to VRS.
Although services have primarily targeted homes of the deaf and hard of hearing, Sorenson is ramping up to sell the VRS ideal in clients' workplaces and in public places such as schools, libraries and airports.
The company also is rolling out a feature-laden videophone, the VP200, that is more tailored to working within the American Sign Language forms and includes a visual caller-identification service.
Although clients must obtain and pay for their own Internet broadband connections to use VRS, the service and equipment costs them nothing. Those items are paid through the universal and disabilities services fees paid nationally by all telephone users.
The expansion announced Tuesday opens VRS centers in Birmingham, Ala.; Denver; Ft. Lauderdale and Jacksonville, Fla.; Des Moines; Chicago; Akron and Cincinnati, Ohio; Oklahoma City; Portland, Maine; Raleigh, N.C.; Louisville, Ky.; Nashville, Tenn.; Lubbock and San Antonio, Texas; Virginia Beach, Va.; and Seattle.
With VRS, ASL users are able to communicate with hearing friends and family through an interpreter using a videophone, television or computer monitor and high-speed Internet connection. The user sees an interpreter on his or her screen and signs to the interpreter, who then contacts the hearing user via a standard phone line and relays the conversation between the two parties.
Making such services uniformly available is a top priority of the National Association of the Deaf.
Anticipating VRS popularity, the Silver Springs, Md., organization is urging its members to flood the Federal Communications Commission with e-mails urging all relay services be required to provide 10-digit geographic telephone numbers to videophone users that can be reached from the standard telephone network.
Sorenson Communications, a leading innovator and provider of video relay services, or VRS, expands into 17 new cities. It serves deaf and partially deaf clients in more than 50 metro areas.
VRS market potential is staggering, with only 10 percent of America's 28 million deaf and partially deaf having access to the service.
VRS equipment and services, paid for by telephone billing fees, are free. Sorenson Communications is expanding its popular video relay services for the deaf and partially deaf to 17 major cities.
President and CEO Pat Nola said Tuesday the move will add several hundred new jobs to the Salt Lake City company's workforce of more than 2,000 and extend video relay services, or VRS, to more than 50 major metropolitan areas.
Combined with the company's IP (Internet protocol) relay service, which allows hearing impaired users to place instant text-based relay calls from a PC or mobile device to any telephone user, Nola said Sorenson maintains its leadership momentum in a rapidly growing niche.
"This market is growing over 100 percent per year and our [services and hiring] are in line with that," he said. "Demand is so high because we offer the most functionally equivalent services for the deaf in their native sign language."
At more than a million VRS calls per month, Sorenson is acknowledged as the undisputed leader in a sector, though several national telephone companies and other VRS providers have entered the market recently.
Nola believes Sorenson's commitment to providing services and equipment that provides functionality most like that available for the hearing majority will keep it ahead. It is generally estimated that only 10 percent of the 28 million Americans with serious hearing losses have access to VRS.
Although services have primarily targeted homes of the deaf and hard of hearing, Sorenson is ramping up to sell the VRS ideal in clients' workplaces and in public places such as schools, libraries and airports.
The company also is rolling out a feature-laden videophone, the VP200, that is more tailored to working within the American Sign Language forms and includes a visual caller-identification service.
Although clients must obtain and pay for their own Internet broadband connections to use VRS, the service and equipment costs them nothing. Those items are paid through the universal and disabilities services fees paid nationally by all telephone users.
The expansion announced Tuesday opens VRS centers in Birmingham, Ala.; Denver; Ft. Lauderdale and Jacksonville, Fla.; Des Moines; Chicago; Akron and Cincinnati, Ohio; Oklahoma City; Portland, Maine; Raleigh, N.C.; Louisville, Ky.; Nashville, Tenn.; Lubbock and San Antonio, Texas; Virginia Beach, Va.; and Seattle.
With VRS, ASL users are able to communicate with hearing friends and family through an interpreter using a videophone, television or computer monitor and high-speed Internet connection. The user sees an interpreter on his or her screen and signs to the interpreter, who then contacts the hearing user via a standard phone line and relays the conversation between the two parties.
Making such services uniformly available is a top priority of the National Association of the Deaf.
Anticipating VRS popularity, the Silver Springs, Md., organization is urging its members to flood the Federal Communications Commission with e-mails urging all relay services be required to provide 10-digit geographic telephone numbers to videophone users that can be reached from the standard telephone network.