Sorenson, AWS Announce Collaboration to Service Worldwide Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Communities
SALT LAKE CITY, July 13, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — With a vision of rapidly scaling and delivering accessible communication services to Deaf, hard-of-hearing, and diverse communities worldwide, Sorenson today announced a new relationship with Amazon Web Services (AWS). The collaboration will support Sorenson’s digital transformation from on-premises data centers to AWS. The virtual, automated infrastructure will increase Sorenson’s operational efficiency and enable the leading provider of communication solutions for the Deaf to deliver critical services to new countries and in new languages.
“Collaboration with AWS, our main provider for cloud-based services, delivers the agility and scalability to empower our expansion and enhances our capacity to innovate for future customer needs,” notes Chief Technology Officer Rick Kreifeldt.
“Moving to the cloud will result in improved, ease-of-use services for our customers, which is our priority,” Kreifeldt says, adding Sorenson is now leveraging the cloud services to provide sign language interpreting for international customers that are being served from the company’s U.K. office.
Additional work between AWS and Sorenson includes interpretive services for AWS events provided by Sorenson, including re:Invent, AWS’s flagship conference. This important work ensures the Deaf community is able to join technical conversations and lead digital transformations, and ensures AWS events are inclusive to all. As part of Sorenson’s own digital transformation, AWS will power next generation services and enhance the firm’s technology platforms to enable new and innovative solutions, while helping to drive functional equivalency to better serve the Deaf and hard-of-hearing communities.
Earlier this year, Sorenson announced The Corporate Consortium Paid Partnership, in collaboration with Amazon, to support the development of sign language interpreters. This pilot is designed to support the development of American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters by working together to provide paid practicum and mentoring experience to current students and new graduates of ASL interpretation programs.
“We’re thrilled to work with Sorenson to create accessibility for the Deaf, hard-of-hearing, and diverse communities worldwide,” said Rich Geraffo, Vice President of North America at AWS. “At AWS, we believe that technology should be built in a way that’s inclusive, diverse, and accessible. I’m proud to be working alongside the Sorenson team to innovate new solutions and create meaningful experiences to help this community.”
“Communication inclusion for everyone in every setting – work, school, medical offices, and beyond, is a basic human right,” notes Jorge Rodriguez, CEO of Sorenson. “We are thrilled to team with Amazon in these endeavors as we continue to advance human connection for all people – universally – through the power of language and conversation.”
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About Sorenson
Sorenson taps the power of language for human relationships to thrive. As one of the world’s leading language services providers and the world’s leading provider of accessible communication for Deaf and hard-of-hearing people, Sorenson combines patented technology with human-centric services to connect signed and spoken languages. Sorenson offers caption and video relay services, over-video and in-person sign language and spoken language interpreting, real-time event captioning services, and post-production language services. For more information on how we advance human connection, visit www.sorenson.com or es.sorenson.com.
Press ContactAnn Bardsley
Director of Public Relations
Sorenson 801-287-9400