All people, regardless of gender, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, language, or (dis)ability, have the right to full access to information and communication. This means that information and communication across all areas of life – for example, in health, education, employment, access to justice, public services or information in an emergency or natural disaster – must be made readily accessible to and usable by all of them.
World in Sign™, LLC (www.worldinsign.com) is an initiative to foster access to all levels of society for ALL through innovation, technology and education. We aim to achieve a better and more sustainable life by working with the sustainable development goals in mind in all our endeavors. We partner with businesses and communities around the world to empower populations often left behind and give them quality access to communication and technology without any roadblock.
World In Sign™’s (WIS) first endeavor with its partner HandHelp™ was to give access to ALL, regardless of age and ability, around the world, to emergency alert systems without the need to make a voice phone call. With the dedicated devices, button, wearables, mobile devices, and app, people in danger or in an emergency situation, regardless of their age, ability and location, can alert emergency services and / or emergency contact people by the press of a button. The alert will be delivered simultaneously to the recipients via text and email including location via GPS, GSM radio networks, and WLAN technology, 14 seconds recording from the mobile phone’s microphone of surrounding sounds and pictures from the mobile phone’s camera. People using sign language to communicate can use the app to call the emergency services directly in their native sign language via an interpreter.
With the global pandemic situation due to COVID 19, people with and without disabilities have been isolated in ways they weren’t prepared for. Because of the diminution of the ability to have physical encounters, the need for visual communication has increased for people with and without disabilities. WIS has been developing and extending its technology to offer products and services to reduce the feeling of isolation people can have. WIS technology provides 2-way and 3-way video communication for virtual interviews, meetings, counselling, healthcare services, customer services, remote court access, telework, telemedicine, disaster alert and more. The technology allows for voice, video, real-time text and speech transcription. This service can also provide video remote interpreting services, where the third party of the 3-way video call is a voice-sign language interpreter to facilitate communication between hearing people and deaf or hard of hearing people.
WIS technology has been focused on remote access to emergency services from the beginning through mobile devices. With COVID-19, the need for “remote everything” has increased exponentially. WIS technology is available from any device connected to the internet without adding extra software on the caller’s side.
WIS is also developing a network of freelance sign language interpreters worldwide to join the remote interpreting effort on a global scale, as well as a network of expert sign language users to fill the gap regarding remote learning and remote education accessibility for the deaf and hard of hearing learners.
WIS philosophy is to be all inclusive and provide resources to help you make your business accessible to all, regardless of age and ability. WIS can also provide advice and training on how your business and / or your online resources can become accessible to all.
COVID-19 has shown the limits of what most thought accessible to the majority, and shown that the most fragile members of our community become even more fragile and left behind. It is time to work together to make an accessible world to all a reality, regardless of age or ability. The technology is here, and now we should use it. We welcome all business, states, companies and organizations interested in partnerships to achieve this goal of inclusivity. Don’t hesitate to contact us at contact@worldinsign.com. WIS is available and ready to apply its 21st Century technology to achieve that goal of global accessibility.
