With the goal of serving South Africans with hearing loss, MTN is piloting an innovative national relay service (NRS) which harnesses the power of technology to enable 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 South Africa, a deaf-owned 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.
Over the next four months, MTN and Convo, which has a strong track-record in advocating for and serving South Africa’s deaf community, will be testing the effectiveness of the service with 100 members of the deaf and hard-of-hearing community.
Cornelia Van Heerden, MTN SA’s Chief Customer Service and Operations Officer
Importantly, contacting critical emergency, fire and medical services is more efficient and far quicker than before for over 2.8 million South African’s living with hearing disabilities or speech impairment and 235 000 South African Sign Language users.
