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