April 9, 2019
As a businessman, Ram Kumar has to interact with clients and
suppliers and for this he needs the services of an interpreter on a regular
basis. He would hire one on a certain day of the week and line up all his
meetings for that day.
“This was a logistical nightmare as it is not convenient for all my clients
and suppliers to be available on one particular day but I had no choice as I
could only hire an interpreter with a week’s notice and pre-book the
service”, says Kumar, who is based in Bengaluru. Even this was filled with
uncertainty as the interpreter would often not turn up at the last minute.
These are the kind of headaches that terpIt, is aiming to do
away with. Launched by Yunikee, which offers customised
solutions for educational institutions, terpIt is a flagship service for the
deaf community to book Indian Sign Language (ISL) interpreters online.
It’s a huge gap that terpIt is aiming to fill, given there are nearly 70
million deaf and hard of hearing Indians with limited access to services and
products that are readily available for the hearing population. Contrast this
to the less than 500 recognised interpreters that are available.
Geographical constraints, lack of awareness of such services available
extrapolate this huge gap between demand and supply of interpretation. This
combined with the non-availability of interpreters in Indian Sign Language
creates a significant gap. terpIt aims to plug this gap by providing online
interpretation services using technology & tools. – Chaithanya
Kothapalli, Co-founder, Yunikee
The service is aimed at corporates, academic institutions, NGOs and people
looking to use the service on demand or through a continued partnership, says
Kothapalli, who has co-founded this with his wife Nita
Gopalakrishnan. To make it a hassle-free service, there is a
three-step online booking service that takes away the pain of contacting
multiple agencies.
The services are offered in four categories – hourly, half day, full day and
virtual. “The longer the engagement, the economical it is”, says
Kothapalli. Also on offer is a customised service option to suit the needs of
organisations or individuals. The rates offered, he claims, are cheaper than
industry standards, starting from Rs. 500 per hour of interpretation.
Kumar, who now regularly accesses the service, says it has made life easier.
“This certainly saves time, logistical effort and money to conduct my
business. I can now decide things faster instead of waiting for an entire
week for my interpreter to help and the quality of interpretation is also
very good.”
terpIt is currently available in Bengaluru and there are plans to expand it
to Chennai and Hyderabad in the next three months. Post that, there are plans
to take the service to Mumbai, Delhi and other metros. There are four
interpreters in the Bengaluru network and the company is seeking to build a
team of partners in cities like Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Delhi.
Unlike in the West, India ISL interpretation is not seen as a full-time
career option in India and it is here that TerpIt faces its biggest
challenge, says Nita Gopalakrishnan. “Identifying skilled
sign language interpreters is a problem as is verifying their interpretation
skills in ISL and ensuring compliance with our quality standards”.
Certification is another major challenge, she points out. ”With limited
options available and in distributed geographies, people who want to learn
interpretation are left without a convenient way to learn”.
To address the challenge, the team has started an online course where those
interested can learn ISL and become a part of terpIt’s network of
interpreters.
The founders bring to the venture over 17 years of experience in the tech and
business fields. Nita’s parents lost their hearing ability at a young age
and she has been working for many years with a London-based NGO that reaches
out to children with hearing impairments. “Interacting with my in-laws and
other deaf people opened up a world unknown to me”, says Kothapalli.
It is this world they wants to brings to the mainstream by making
communication between the hearing & deaf population barrier-free.
“Creating a platform for connecting them through sign language interpreters
is the first step towards that goal” adds Gopalakrishnan.
Source: https://newzhook.com/story/21909
