Contact:
Glenn Lockhart
Viable Inc.
Tel: 240.292.0222 x227
Fax: 301.230.2442
[email protected]
www.viable.net
Viable Expands with Branch in Austin, Texas
ROCKVILLE, MD – May 14, 2009 – Viable, Inc., a deaf-owned and
deaf-operated provider of video interpreting services for deaf and
hard of hearing people, will open a business office in Austin, a few
miles from the Texas School for the Deaf.
Viable currently operates a call center in Austin in addition to
multiple call centers throughout the country. The Austin branch will
be its first business office outside of its two-building headquarters
in Rockville, Md., and will be located at the Plaza 7000 building on
7000 North Mopac Expressway, which has views of hills and downtown
Austin from a few miles away. The office will accommodate up to 20
employees who will focus on technical support and regional marketing
and sales.
“Given the current environment of economic slowdown, this is a prime
opportunity for companies that are achieving healthy levels of revenue
to pursue an expansion strategy,” said Viable president and co-founder
John T.C. Yeh. “Austin was an attractive choice for several reasons —
Viable has an existing investment in our Austin call center, business
operations costs in the area are favorable, the region is a hotbed of
high-tech talent, and Austin is home to a vibrant deaf and hard of
hearing community with the Texas School for the Deaf as its anchor.”
Viable provides video relay services (VRS), which enable deaf and
hard of hearing people to make phone calls in American Sign Language
by using video technology to connect to a Video Interpreter (VI), who
will facilitate their conversation. ViableVRS is open 24 hours a day
and seven days a week, including the holidays, and is also available
in Spanish. Viable plans to launch video remote interpreting services
(VRI) and professional on-site interpreting services in the second
half of 2009.
Viable employs more than 240 people, with the majority of them deaf
and hard of hearing. Viable was recognized in 2008 by The Gazette of
Politics and Business, a Washington Post Company publication, as the
No. 2 company out of 53 companies in the State of Maryland based on a
criteria factoring in growth and employee satisfaction. Said Yeh, “We
are proud of our accomplishments in Maryland — creating jobs for deaf
and hard of hearing persons and sponsoring local community events
while providing the nation with a stellar 24/7 service, and we aim to
achieve the same in Texas.”
The Austin branch is expected to open in June 2009 and will be
managed by Dr. Parker Kennedy, who is deaf and an alumnus of Texas
School for the Deaf. Persons interested in Austin-based opportunities
with Viable are welcome to email their resumes to [email protected] or
visit the Jobs section at the company website.
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About Viable, Inc.
Viable develops videophones and provides next-generation video relay
services for deaf and hard of hearing persons, opening them to a world
of communication possibilities. Founded in 2006, Viable is a private,
deaf-owned company, and many employees are deaf and hard of hearing
and are personally vested in the innovation and development of the
company’s products and services. Visit www.viable.net for further
information.
About Telecommunications Relay Services
Mandated by Title IV of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990,
telecommunications relay services (TRS) enables individuals with
hearing or speech disabilities to achieve functional equivalence by
accessing telephone systems to place or receive calls through an
intermediary known as a relay operator or relay interpreter. Emergent
IP technology has given rise to video-based solutions, which are known
as video relay services (VRS). VRS options include using a webcam or a
videophone to connect to a video relay interpreter, and allow deaf and
hard of hearing callers for whom sign language is native to fully
achieve the ideal of functional equivalence.