In October 2013 Ai-Media marked the beginning of its global expansion from its Australian base by opening a UK office in Westminster Bridge Road, in the heart of London. Building on our original expertise in providing captions for both broadcast and education, Ai-Media UK was soon enabling access to the spoken word to deaf people in schools, colleges, universities and the workplace all over the country.
Together with the groundbreaking Visible Classroom technology, which allows teachers to review their practice and receive detailed feedback from the University of Melbourne, Ai-Media is now providing support to an even wider range of people. In the past three years the technology has developed to help people with an autistic spectrum disorder (ASD), those with epilepsy and those who have English as an additional language, also to access support in the classroom, college, university and workplace. Speech to text, enabled by our talented respeakers using our Ai-Live technology, is changing the lives of many more students via individual support currently funded by the Disabled Students’ Allowance. The next few years will see these students – and many others – routinely gaining access to the spoken word via lecture capture and the continued live captioning of their classes.
Our expansion into the corporate world in the UK means that being hard of hearing need no longer present a barrier to work. Talented and able individuals can now take their rightful place in the workforce thanks to Ai-Live captions funded through Access to Work and/ or employers themselves.
Now a steadily maturing company in the UK, with many exciting new projects ahead, we decided it was time for a move. So, early in November, we relocated from Westminster Bridge to London Bridge, and an office allowing all Ai-Media staff to be located in one place. With a view of The Shard, it can’t be bad!
The services will continue to expand into new areas, but our goal will always be the same: Global Impact One Word at a Time.
Written by Eileen Hopkins, Executive Director UK
