...As you've noted, we do need to use those
experiences in order to learn how we can incorporate technology
into our provision of bilingual services.
Zoominterpretation in Plenary and committee
meetings has worked very effectively, I believe—more effectively
than the service in normal Plenaries and committees, perhaps,
certainly from the perspective of those of us who use the Welsh
language.
The experience with meetings on other platforms isn't as
positive, and we still need to apply pressure in this area. There
is concern that Teams is favoured and promoted for virtual
working internally, rather than Zoom, although
Teams doesn't support interpretation at the moment. Political
groups have to fund the cost of Zoom from their
own office costs in order to hold bilingual meetings. So, I do
think, and I know that you would agree with this, that we do need
to continue to try to find a solution in terms of Teams, but, in
the meantime, we should continue to promote the use of
Zoom in order to make it as easy as possible for
Members, Commission staff and Members' staff to use it in order
to continue to hold internal meetings in Welsh with
interpretation where necessary.
:...In terms of technology, Siân made some very
good points. Zoom was something miraculous
that happened just before the pandemic. I came across
Zoom for the first time in
December of last year; all of a sudden, we have this platform
where we can work entirely bilingually. And, yes, there is some
catching up work to be done for other platforms, including Teams.
Teams, of course, internationally, has had to develop from being
a platform for just four people back in March; now it's a far
larger platform. But we do need to make the most of the
relationship that the Senedd has with companies like Microsoft in
order to ensure that that ability to work bilingually on all
platforms is made a reality...
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