Skype Interviews With Captions Are A Lifeline

In today’s remote-working world, Skype calls for job interviews have skyrocketed in number, with the video-calling service used by up to 70 per cent of candidates seeking work outside their own national territory, according to recruiters in the UK.

For applicants with hearing issues, Skype with realtime speech-to-text captions is a lifeline:

1. Interviewees can see – and hear – the recruiter, with less scope for misunderstandings.
2. Live captions visually reinforce the verbal interactions, with a reminder of topics to cite.
3. Candidate and interviewer can engage confidently, with the captions giving context.
4. Applicants with hearing issues worry less about correctly hearing interview questions.
5. Transcripts provide a subsequent learning context for HR teams and job candidates.

Florida Physician Seeks A Skype Video-Interview

Notably, Dr Peter Garcia, a physician in Florida who has a cochlear implant and thirty years’ experience in family and emergency medicine, recently challenged a prospective employer, Providence Health, for not offering the option of a Skype video call for an interview.

According to the plaintiff, the interviewer did not accept his request for a Skype video-call for interviewing purposes, despite Garcia emailing to equate the difficulty of making a phone call with an implant, to the challenge of reading text for a person who has sight issues. In these circumstances, Garcia is now seeking a jury trial and possible damages for the case.