Source: a8inea.com
At the dawn of 2024 the column hosts a topic that springs, literally, from my heart. In an era defined by technological advances, innovation and entrepreneurship can pave the way for improving accessibility and provide opportunities for people with disabilities.
Working Girl’s guessed for January is Jenny Tantidou, co-founder of Evenly, a platform that supports hearing impaired users. Our discussion was instructive and enjoyable at the same time!
- Introduce us to Jenny. Who is Jenny Tantidou?
- A 50-year-old woman, mother of Magdalene, a wonderful daughter studying law, and four small restless lovable quadrupeds.
- I was born in Thessaloniki and lived there for the first years of my life together with my grandparents. At the age of five I followed my parents to the Emirates and other Arab countries, where I lived until my early teen age years.
- I studied Psychology and Marketing and completed my studies with an MBA. In the first 20 years of my career I worked in corporate international environments, where I learned to collaborate and participate in the realization of the respective organization’s vision.
- After 15 years in marketing research I found myself at HSBC as head of marketing in Greece, and then in the position of Senior International Marketing Manager where – in addition to my role in Greece - I was called upon to face the challenges of the bank’s expansion into new, emerging markets such as Kazakhstan and Armenia.
- But I always had a strong desire to leave my own mark. To succeed, through my work, in creating something for the common good… and that feeling kept smoldering, waiting to come true. At some point, packing my suitcase for the next trip, I realized that what I lacked and needed was greater freedom of movement.
- So with much self-awareness I moved to the “opposite side”, to entrepreneurship, away from the protection of the corporate environment. I have now started a new cycle. For the first time I have been given the opportunity to create something beneficial that leaves a social footprint. To transform my knowledge and experience for the betterment of humanity and society.
- Evenly is a technology communication platform that connects organizations and businesses with the deaf and heard of hearing community through sing language interpretation, as well as automatic real-time subtitling.
Evenly promises to give hearing to thousands of our fellow citizens who are deaf or hard of hearing and are often marginalized. Was there a particular experience or moment that motivated you to pursue this particular topic?
- It was in the middle of the pandemic when Panos Konstantinidis, the company’s founder and my business partner, tried to find a way so that his daughter, Eva – who is hard of hearing – would not lose contact with the world around here. It was the time when we were all frightened and wore face masks.
- Of course, on the one hand masks may have saved lives back then, but on the other hand they prevented many of our fellow persons from communicating freely. Eva, because of the mask, could not see and red the lips of her classmates and teachers, making it particularly difficult for her to communicate.
- So we created Evenly, which is actually named after Eva, along with the equality that the platform strives to achieve.
- Approximately 8% of the world’s population has some degree of hearing loss, and consequently with communication. Therefore we are talking about 430.000.000 people globally, with a forecast of 700 million people by 2050.
- Evenly is a communication technology platform that connects organization and businesses with the deaf and hard of hearing community through sin language interpretation and real-time automatic sub-titling. We also recently added the automatic translation feature.
- Technology at the service of men. Isn’t that supposed to be the purpose of technology? We often discuss that the success of technology is that it manages to serve people and at the same time be so simple to use and integrate into our lives that it goes unnoticed. We almost don’t realize that it even exists.
- Starting with Eva’s challenge, we found out that about 8% of the world’s population has some type of hearing difficulty, and consequently, with communication. Globally we are talking about 430.000.000 people, with a forecast of 700 million people by 2050. This is the largest group of people with disability worldwide.
- You know, in Greece there are about 800.000 people with hearing difficulties. Of these, approximately 40.000 – 50.000 have sign language as their preferred language and the rest use written Greek language.
- You’re going to ask me what technology does for all these people needs. Unfortunately, until now, no single solution has been created for the various communication challenges faced by this large group of PWDs. Because we must point out that the deaf and hard of hearing do not all have the same needs when it comes to communication.
- Hence, we decided to cover all the existing needs and simply give the community the possibility of Choice. In this way everyone can chose the manner of communication that serves them best. For example, using a sign language interpreter, or automatic subtitling when communicating with their interlocutor or both simultaneously.
Evenly’s platform is currently used by large organizations, such as PPC (Public Power Corporation), who have made accessibility a key priority for equal service. How does Evenly make a positive impact on the lives of the hearing impaired?
- PPC was the first organization that decided to work inclusively towards the deaf and hard of hearing. It embraced Evenly from the very beginning and through it created the pioneering “Service for All” customer service.
- With Evenly, the deaf or hard of hearing will be able to contact a public service, a bank, a doctor, a pharmacist, from wherever they are…
- Essentially it paves the way for equal customer service in Greece. This is one of the reasons for its success and appeal. As PPC customer service told us, “The satisfaction you get from serving a hearing-impaired fellow citizen cannot be compared to either awards or bonuses. You feel that you are becoming a person again, that you are contributing to the good of society in general”.
- Of course, PPC was only the beginning. With Evenly, the deaf or hard of hearing will be able to contact a public service, a bank, a pharmacist, from wherever they are… or even, when they arrive at a hotel, they will be able to consult with a receptionist about their booking. They simply connect through their mobile phone and communicate easily and directly.
- The cases for the platform’s use are countless, both remotely and in person. Imagine, that as we speak, the hard of hearing are forced to communicate with hearing people through exchanging written notes. Or, those who speak sign language often had to be accompanied by a sign-speaking person to act as an interpreter, a go-between for communicating.
- Imagine going to a doctor for personal matter and having to share sensitive health information with your mother, sister or brother. With Evenly, independence, self-autonomy and privacy of the hearing-impaired person is now restored.
- I am especially moved when I am told by deaf and hard of hearing people “With what you are doing, you are improving the quality of our lives.” What greater moral satisfaction could one receive?
From a business perspective, do you see a growing market demand for accessibility-focused solutions? Apart from supporting the hearing impaired, do you see other areas where Evenly would be of interest?
- In its first year, Evenly has already acquired clients from very important organizations and businesses in the sector of tourism, banking, health care and aviation. Our goal is for all businesses and organizations to have our platform available to serve as many hearing-impaired people as possible without charging them anything for this service.
- With the new law N.4994/2024, derived from the European Directive “European Accessibility Act”, organizations and companies, both in the public and private sectors, are obliged to provide equal service for the deaf and hard of hearing.
- The law will boost the adoption of Evenly. Of course, we want to point out that Evenly is not just a moral or legal obligation – it is also a business opportunity.
