Signing up to new options for the deaf
EDDIE Redmond waves at me through the camera on his computer. Eddie is deaf, and while his interpreter Amanda Cogan positions the computer screen properly, Eddie and I exchange the one thing we can without her help — greetings, smiles and the occasional thumbs up.
We are about to conduct an interview through a new system called Irish Remote Interpreting Service. IRIS has been made possible by the invention of such technologies like Skype and Ovo which have brought the visual as well as the aural into houses throughout the world. For the deaf community, the benefits of Skype and its ilk are immeasurable.
