The sudden switch to virtual meetings at the start of 2020 called attention to the power of technology and communication. The speed at which the world adjusted to working from home is evidence of how far we’ve come from the days of noisy fax machines and dial-up internet. Can you imagine a global work from home mandate in 1999? But with all of the progress we’ve made so far, have our meetings and events become any more accessible? The answer: not yet. Just think of the last virtual meeting you’ve attended that featured a sign language interpreter or the use of captions. Luckily, KUDO is equipped to provide both, and in multiple languages.

As of October 10^th, KUDO meetings will be equipped with real-time language expert level captioning for participants in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Russian, Arabic, Japanese…And this is just the beginning.

Different meeting goers have different needs; KUDO’s new addition was designed to help meeting participants of all kinds including:

• Participants who are hearing impaired, enabling them to read transcriptions of the meeting in real-time
• Participants who are visual learners as compared to auditory learners
• Participants who are in situations where they are unable to listen to the audio

KUDO also offers real-time interpretation in 100+ languages (including sign language) from a network of over 10,000 vetted professional interpreters, allowing meeting participants to engage and participate in their own language. Enabling live captioning takes inclusivity and accessibility one step further.

Accessibility and inclusion are at the cornerstone of every new KUDO product and feature. We are constantly working to keep these new additions up to date to ensure that everyone can have full and equal participation in virtual, hybrid, or in-person meetings or events.

In today’s globalized business world, the era of monolingual, non-accessible, non-inclusive meetings is coming to an end. The new era of virtual meetings looks a lot like KUDO- inclusive, accessible, and innovative. With the latest developments in technology, there is no excuse for inaccessible virtual events and meetings going into 2022.