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♪ (playful music) ♪
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(laughter)
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Hi, I'm Jana.
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I manage the Accounting and HR functions.
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My name is Margarita.
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I work as a Software Tester with Amara.
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[How do you spend your weekends?]
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Most likely table tennis or cycling
to one of our local beautiful beaches.
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I like cooking and also,
I do some volunteer work.
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Reading.
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Reading.
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Reading some interesting books.
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[Do you have any pets or plants?]
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(chuckles) I have six dogs.
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They're all rescued,
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so I play a lot with my dogs.
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I have a peace lily
that I've had for years.
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This is Lily Tomlin, no relation.
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[What do you love about
working at Amara?]
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Just connecting with our audience.
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Just to make somebody's life
a little be easier just for that moment
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that they're reading my support article
or whatever it is.
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At the end of the project,
when I'm actually delivering,
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let's say a completed video
with some captions and subtitles,
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that actually makes me feel
like, really, really fulfilled,
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like, "Oh, now we have
more videos out there
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that have captions and subtitles,
more people will be able to access it."
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Absolutely the people.
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Everyone's interest in
making the world better truly
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is just unbelievable.
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Everybody has this thing
that somehow is motivated
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by the overall mission of Amara,
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which is actually to provide accessibility
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and also use their skills
to share information with others.
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It's a special culture,
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there's not much of a top-down hierarchy.
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It's really a cooperative effort.
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We're all very spread
geographically and in time
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but we always find time for each other.
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[What languages do you speak?]
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(chuckles) I'm only fluent in English
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but I'm learning
American Sign Language, Russian--
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My spouse's family is
from the former Soviet Union,
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so I'd like to be able to speak to
the other generations in that family.
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English, Spanish, as my native language--
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My native language is Russian
and I use English for work--
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Cantonese, a little bit of Mandarin--
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I have also learned some Spanish,
German and Chinese.
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French and a little bit of Arabic.
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I speak English and about...
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this much Spanish.
(laughter)
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[Pop Quiz: When was the first version
of Amara released?]
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Either 2010 or 2013?
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2006?
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2001?
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Yeah, no, I don't know.
(chuckles)
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2010.
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That's when the first prototype
was created.
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I witnessed it,
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I was volunteering with Amara back then.
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[What does accessibility mean to you?]
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That everyone has the same opportunity
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being able to understand
the world through video
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and through the captioning
and translation that we do,
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and that other people do...
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no limits.
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It means a lot.
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I have a Cohlear implant
and they are hearing aid.
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Without them, I cannot hear
practically anything at home
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and with them, it is okay
in one-to-one personal conversations,
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but not so nice
when you use something technical,
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when you're watching videos
or talk over the phone,
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so subtitles mean a great deal.
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Accessibility to me starts with empathy.
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A lot of my friends, actually,
don't speak English,
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so being able to help
to make a lot of the information
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that I have helped
to subtitle into Spanish,
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if I can share it with some
of my friends back in Venezuela,
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or my family, or my mom...
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it feels really good.
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[What effect do you hope
Amara will have on the world?]
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Acceptance and--
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I mean, the world
is in such a difficult place...
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Communicating, you know,
just communicating.
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When we work every day
with so many people
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from so many other countries,
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you just realized people are different
but the same, from all over.
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I think there's a lot of
untapped potential
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for this tool to be used
by other types of users.
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Transcription is a great opportunity
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for people who have vision problems
to find employment.
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I really hope to see this happen.
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Using AI to generate
subtitles and captions,
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you know, that has been
on the rise for the last few years
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and there has been a lot of humor
and a lot of mistakes,
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and that definitely highlights
how important people are
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to the process of language in any form.
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I'm hoping that the way
that we treat people,
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and the way how we put
their experience first,
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and their abilities first,
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will be noticed
and that that would inspire
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other people to say
that it's not impossible to do that.