(Photo: Provided)
Thousands of deaf South Africans will soon lose their only reliable way to communicate independently when Convo South Africa suspends its operations.
This company, which was founded in March 2009 and is the world’s largest company founded and owned by the deaf, apparently has no other choice but to suspend its operations by February 28.
Chelsea Williamson, general manager of Convo South Africa, says the cost of providing high-quality video interpreting services (such as for deaf and high-pitched users) is extremely high. There is currently not enough funding or a stable market in South Africa to make the service sustainable.
According to her, this decision is a direct result of the empty promises made by Pres. Cyril Ramaphosa made in this year’s state of the nation address.
She says that while Ramaphosa has committed to an inclusive digital economy where “no one is left behind”, the suspension of operations for 22,000 deaf South Africans shows a systemic failure to translate Ramaphosa’s rhetoric into legislative action regarding who pays for accessibility.
(Photo: Provided)
Convo is a provider of Video Relay Services (VRS) and has helped more than 70 million deaf people worldwide since its inception. The company has branches in the USA, the United Kingdom (UK), Canada and Australia.
In South Africa, Convo has handled more than 22,000 conversations since 2022, facilitating everything from emergency ambulance calls to job interviews.
Williamson says that despite the increasing demand, the current funds in South Africa remain fragmented and unsustainable compared to international standards.
“As the general manager of Convo, I have the unique vantage point of seeing how access is handled globally versus locally. In the UK, for example, the access to work scheme provides a government grant to people with disabilities. A deaf person can use that grant to pay for their own interpreters or communication support. The power is in their hands and the funding is guaranteed by the state.”
According to Williamson, it is important that the difficult questions are asked: Why does the government’s vision for digital transformation exclude the 1.5 million South Africans who use sign language.
(Photo: Provided)
“We have world-class legislation on paper and a president who talks about dignity, but the implementation is lacking. We operate in a gray area where companies often believe that the disabled must pay for their own access, or they view accessibility as a charity item rather than a compliance requirement.