ESG 23 Final Single pages - Flipbook - Page 49
INCREASING ACCESSIBILITY FOR BLIND
TRANSLATORS
The RWS Foundation is partnering with the RWS Trados
team to enable over 1,000 blind translators to work
independently.
The project centres on making the next version of Trados
studio accessible for visually impaired translators. This
accessibility enhancement aims to bridge the gap in
the translation industry, providing visually impaired
individuals the opportunity to contribute their skills,
become self-su昀케cient, and unlock their potential as
translation professionals.
The initiative is being driven by a dedicated, crossfunctional team and, given the scope and complexity
of the project, resources are also being allocated from
di昀昀erent areas of the software development team based
on expertise and project requirements.
The team is anchored by a subject matter expert quality
assurance (QA) specialist, Anna Rita de Bonis, a PhD
candidate from the University of International Studies of
Rome (UNINT) programme. Anna Rita has collaborated
with the RWS Trados Studio development and QA teams
previously, and provides a deep understanding of the
needs of visually impaired users. She is providing critical
insights into the user experience of this community,
playing a key role in engagement e昀昀orts, and ensuring
that the user experience – right from initial contact
through onboarding to daily use – is seamless, intuitive,
and empowering for visually impaired translators.
The project is expected to take nine months and the
completed accessibility features will be incorporated into
the upcoming major release of Trados Studio.
CLEAR GLOBAL
CLEAR Global (formerly Translators without Borders) was
selected as the Foundation’s 昀椀rst bene昀椀ciary of 2023.
CLEAR Global is a non-pro昀椀t global community of linguists
who help people in need to get vital information and be
heard, whatever language they speak.
During FY23 we assisted them with a number of projects
supporting people in crisis following natural disasters
and in areas of con昀氀ict, for example, localising Polish and
Slovak into Ukrainian.
RWS is supporting CLEAR Global by working closely with
them, sharing resources and providing support with our
own network of in-house translators.
Ongoing support includes translating, localising
and reviewing critical content, managing large-scale
projects, providing training to translators and members,
and analysing data to ensure the highest translation
standards are maintained. RWS has also made its machine
translation post-editing course freely available to CLEAR
Global’s 100,000 strong community of translators,
giving them the tools and skills they need to improve the
standard of translation projects.
SOCIAL RWS Holdings plc — ESG Report 2023
49
