Just because a person has physical challenges does not mean they should be unable to be employed to provide compelling customer experiences as contact center agents. In fact, this is a global challenge/opportunity for contact center solutions providers. It is illustrated by the recent announcement that Presence Technology is the first contact center solutions provider in Colombia to integrate with JAWS (Job Access with Speech), screen reader for visually impaired people.
Presence Technology is promoting its creation of an inclusive globally accessible capability that incorporates JAWS into its contact center solutions suite through a custom toolbar that allows people with any type of visual impairment access and management of the Presence Agent and Presence Scripting modules. This enables them to work as contact center agents with the same technology as the not visually impaired agents do.
JAWS software converts the contents of the operating systems and sound applications through speech synthesis. This allows visually impaired users to navigate and interact from their computer. As Presence Technology noted, the Columbia Ministry of Information Technologies and communications, through its plan ‘‘Live Digital’’, allows free download of the screen reader software.
The integration between Presence and JAWS will mean that the growing number of contact centers in Columbia will be able to tap into an expanded talent pool when hiring agents. The nice part is that not only does this expand that pool to those with visual impairments, but does so without the need for additional investment in contact center infrastructure, or compromise the ability of such agents to provide great customer experiences.
According to Nibia Salazar, country manager of presence in Colombia, ‘‘this revolutionary integration places Presence as leader in innovation and creation of inclusive programs for visually impaired people; it also brings interesting development options of corporate social responsibility programs for our clients, and the possibility to access to the legal and tax benefits provided by the government’’.
It should be noted that Presence Technology launched the ‘’No limits Contact Center Technology” at the International Congress of Credit and Collection, that was held at the JW Marriot Hotel in Bogotá on September 4th, where it was a Silver Sponsor.