The teleconferencing system was commissioned by RNIB for the launch of its groundbreaking new Talk and Support service, the first project of its kind in the world
A revolutionary new teleconferencing system that puts blind and partially sighted people in touch with each other was developed for the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB).
Launched in March 2002, it allows people taking part to use the phone to share ideas, support each other, gain information and learn to cope more easily with sight loss - from the comfort of their own homes.”
The system comprised ah an Audio Conferencing Bridge with voice recording facilities.
RNIB had the added challenge of helping blind and partially sighted people who also may have hearing difficulties, so quality of sound is crucial to them.
As well as stipulating that the conference bridge needed to be controlled over its LAN , RNIB asked for it to be develop with special interface that could be operated by blind and partially sighted volunteers.
Another criterion was that conference facilitators needed to be able to be located within RNIB’s WAN telephone network or be home based, with office based controllers who could conference into the call. They could offer individual support to conference participants, but take them off-line into a separate area for one-to-one conversation when necessary.
The management and setting up of teleconferences needed to be fully accessible and operational for visually blind and partially sighted users
Additional in-built facilities include automatic and manual dial-in and voting facilities for participants. Also integration with internal databases and full call reporting including billing are offered.
“The technology is easy to use and enables us to connect everyone in the conference call quickly and without too much interruption to the participants,” says Julie Polzerova, project manager at RNIB.
“The software offers us the flexibility to manage the conference calls effectively, for example, individually tailoring the sound levels so that each participant is able to hear each other comfortably.”
Aimed at blind and partially sighted people who find it hard to get out and about and those who feel isolated, the system has the capacity to offer teleconferencing services 24 hours a day, 52 weeks a year.
According to recent research, there are almost two million blind and partially sighted people in the UK , and 90% of these are over 60 years old.
The Talk and Support project has been created thanks to a generous donation of £1.1 million from Barclays Bank PLc which will fund the project for three years before it becomes self-financing. |