With a video call, deaf users can communicate with the hospital

A sign language video interpreting service to help deaf users. 

The “Sette Laghi” Health Authority has participated in a regional project dedicated to accessibility and, in particular, to the needs of deaf patients.

With funds received for this purpose, the authority has obtained a system of Italian sign language video-interpreting, which is now available in the outpatient clinic dedicated to acknowledging the conditions of legal deafness, and in the Public Relations Office of the “Circolo” Hospital in Varese, but the intention is to gradually extend it to all of the health authority’s outpatient clinics and facilities.

This service makes it possible to significantly break down communication barriers for deaf patients who visit the authority’s facilities.

The service can be activated from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., every day, including holidays, via a computer, tablet or smartphone equipped with a webcam, by making a video call with a sign language interpreter, who, in a few seconds, will be available to provide support for communication between health authority staff and the deaf patient.

The “Sette Laghi” Health Authority is the first in Lombardy to obtain this system, which provides a concrete response to the communication difficulties of deaf people, by breaking down language barriers.

“This initiative fits perfectly with our authority’s mission,” explained Dr Ivan Mazzoleni, the director of the “Sette Laghi” health authority, “which is to respond to the needs of people, whatever they might be.”