jordan pulse -
In alignment with its sustainability management strategy and its active role in supporting people with disabilities to empower them and enhance their social integration, Zain Jordan has launched a sign language instant translation service for all its customers with hearing and speech disabilities across its showrooms in all provinces of the kingdom.
This service solidifies Zain Jordan’s efforts towards people with disabilities to meet their requirements and contribute to overcoming challenges and obstacles, especially in telecommunications services. The company works on integrating and including people with disabilities, giving them special attention, and incorporating them into its services, initiatives, and programs. This step aligns with the tenth goal of “Reducing Inequalities” from the Sustainable Development Goals that Zain applies in all its sustainability management initiatives and programs.
The service allows all subscribers of “Al-Basmah +” line, dedicated to Zain’s deaf and hard-of-hearing customers, to communicate with the company’s showroom staff through instant translation technology from spoken speech to Jordanian sign language, using tablets available in all company showrooms.
Zain Jordan is committed to launching and adopting initiatives and programs aimed at providing all suitable facilitative measures for people with disabilities. In recognition of its efforts to integrate and empower people with disabilities, the company received an honorary award from the Essl Foundation at the United Nations headquarters in Vienna in 2018 for developing an innovative ecosystem suitable for the deaf community.
The company, in a first-of-its-kind step, made mobile phone service contracts available through visual and audible videos for its customers with hearing and visual disabilities, accessible by scanning the “QR Code” in the company’s showrooms across the provinces, making it the first telecommunications company in the region to offer this service. In 2015, Zain launched the “Al-Basmah +” line - the first of its kind in the kingdom - dedicated to the deaf, offering video call minutes and connecting it to the Command and Control Center at the Public Security Directorate on emergency number 114.
The company also supported the launch of the emergency call application for the deaf (114) on smartphones by the Public Security Directorate, which has received 6012 calls since the application’s operation in 2023 until today.
Through its customer service center dedicated to the deaf, Zain provides technical support and responds to inquiries from deaf users of this line via video calls on number 1414. Zain Jordan has also launched its digital library on its YouTube channel to teach the basics and principles of Jordanian sign language, featuring video lessons presented by sign language trainers and experts. The library includes detailed explanations of basic vocabulary and expressions in sign language, helping those interested in learning the language at all levels to master essential and important words needed when dealing with the deaf.
The digital library offers free, high-quality educational materials, and the company will also provide employee contracts in sign language to accommodate its employees with disabilities. In the same context, the company continuously trains its employees to master sign language and facilitate communication with colleagues with hearing disabilities.