By providing connection to a centre with sign language interpreters, the users can request calls to be relayed between signing in the videophone and using voice in a voice telephone. During the trial, the service has not been charged to the user. During the trial, distant interpreter services have also been provided. This service is used by deaf and hearing people in the same location getting access to an interpreter through a videophone call. It is only offered for small meetings.
Earlier experience tells that large meetings tend to become unmanageable for distant interpretation.
The service is currently open Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., serving around 60 user terminals all around Sweden doing around 400 calls per month. The Swedish Handicap Institute provided support during the initial service trial, organising a reference group and collecting user views of the service. The video relay service relaying a call between a videophone and a voice phone. The terminals The requirements on videophones to perform well for sign language are to provide high picture update rates and reasonably sharp images. The interpreter terminals were selected using a quality evaluation method developed in a research project by the Swedish Association of the Deaf.