contractSCOTLAND: Review of the service extension pilot

4. Experience of using contactSCOTLAND

The feedback on using contactSCOTLAND is discussed in this section to help inform an understanding of how people are using contactSCOTLAND and their views on the experience of using the service. Respondents were also asked for their views on the contactSCOTLAND website which is an important part of the contactSCOTLAND service.

Key points:

• Overall, those who had used the service were positive about the ease of use and were satisfied with the service.
• There were concerns about the quality and reliability of the technology.
• Deaf BSL users were positive about the difference that the service had made for them.
• The website was generally regarded as helpful and easy to use.

Views on using contactSCOTLAND

The surveys of individuals, public services and Deaf organisations asked people about their experience of using contactSCOTLAND, and what impact they thought the service had had for them as an individual or for the organisation. Where relevant it was also asked whether they would use the service again or recommend it to other people.

Overall experience

Overall, the feedback from 26 Deaf BSL users was positive, in terms of the ease of use of the service, waiting times, technology and the overall experience of using the service.

• Twenty people found the service easy or fairly easy to use. Five had found it hard or fairly hard to use and one couldn't remember
• Twenty-three people were very or fairly satisfied and three were fairly dissatisfied with the waiting time to connect to an interpreter
• There were slightly more mixed views in terms of satisfaction with the technology. Fourteen people were fairly or very satisfied. Eight people were somewhat or very dissatisfied and four were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied.
• Overall, most people (21) were very or fairly satisfied with their experience of using contactSCOTLAND.

Quality of service

The majority of Deaf BSL user respondents (9 out of 19) felt that the quality of the interpreting and translation was good. Seven additional comments were also received on the translation service. There were positive comments on the quality of the interpreting, however, the technology was again mentioned as an issue here by people who had found that the picture was blurry or frozen^[11]. It was suggested that it would be helpful to have a choice of interpreters and to have a visual list of the interpreters who are working for contactSCOTLAND. There was also feedback from two participants at the face-to-face meetings that they had had difficulties with interpreters understanding differences in regional signing. In addition, it was noted at the meetings that it is important for interpreters to be of high quality, particularly for medical related calls. Only one Deaf organisation commented on the quality of the interpretation and translation and they had found it to be satisfactory.

Representatives from public services who had used contactSCOTLAND were asked how satisfied they were with the quality of the technology and the waiting time to connect to an interpreter. Five of seven people were fairly or very satisfied with the quality of the technology although two were very dissatisfied. With regards to waiting time for an interpreter, four people were very satisfied and two were somewhat or very dissatisfied and one was neither satisfied nor dissatisfied.

Those who had used the service were also asked what their staff thought of the interpreting and translation. Five people thought it was good or satisfactory. Among those who had used the service five found it very easy or fairly easy to use, two found it very hard and one didn't know or couldn't answer the question. Overall, from the public services who responded five people were very or fairly satisfied with their experience of using contactSCOTLAND and one was very dissatisfied.

Impact of the service

Respondents were also asked in various ways about the personal or professional impact of the contactSCOTLAND service. Deaf BSL users who had used the service were asked the extent to which they agreed or disagreed with five statements on the impact of contactSCOTLAND. Twenty-six people responded to each of these questions.

• "contactSCOTLAND has made it easier for me contact public services"
  Nearly all of those who responded (22) agreed or strongly agreed with this statement with only one respondent disagreeing.

• "The contactSCOTLAND service was available when I need to use it."
  Nearly all of those who responded (23) agreed or strongly agreed with this statement and only 1 disagreed.

• "I feel confident using contactSCOTLAND"
  Similarly, nearly all of those who responded (23) agreed or strongly agreed with this statement. However, in this case one person strongly disagreed

• "I feel more independent as a result of the contactSCOTLAND service"
  Overall, 22 people agreed or strongly agreed with this statement with 14 of these strongly agreeing. Two people disagreed.

• "Nothing has changed for me as a result of using contactSCOTLAND"
  Views were slightly more mixed on this statement. Sixteen people disagreed or strongly disagreed, and 7 people agreed or strongly agreed.

Public services and Deaf organisations were also asked what impact they thought contactSCOTLAND had had for their service. There were a small number of answers to this question. Four of the five who answered said that contactSCOTLAND has made it easier to communicate with Deaf/Deafblind BSL users. One organisation said it had had no impact. One local authority respondent to the Deaf organisations survey felt that it had increased requests for interpretation and five Deaf organisations said that there had been no change for their organisation.

Future use of the service

The majority of those who answered the Deaf community survey (25 of 28) would use the contactSCOTLAND service again. Two additional comments were received which referred to issues with the technology and interpreters as reasons for not using it again. Deaf BSL users who had used the service were also asked if they would recommend it to other people. The majority (22 out of 26 people) would also recommend the service. There were a small number of people asked at the face-to-face meetings who indicated that they would use the service again and would recommend it to a family member or a friend. However, most said that they prefer face-to-face interpreting, although contactSCOTLAND is a supplementary service rather than a replacement for face-to-face interpreting.

The contactSCOTLAND website

The contactSCOTLAND website offers information and guidance on the contactSCOTLAND service and the ability to connect to an interpreter through the website. All the surveys asked respondents to rate the clarity and usefulness of the content, the ease of navigation and the website design. Overall, the feedback on the website tended to be positive from each respondent group.

Seventeen Deaf BSL users provided feedback on the contactSCOTLAND website. People tended to find that the website was clear and useful and that they were able to find the information that they required. Eight public service respondents provided feedback. Overall, there was positive feedback on clarity, usefulness and ease of navigation, but more mixed views on the appearance of the website.

Overall, the feedback from interpreters was also positive with the majority (of 20 respondents) of the rating each of these aspects as good. Five Deaf organisations provided feedback. Overall, people were satisfied with the different elements of the website, although there was one poor rating on both the ease of navigation and website appearance.