Overview

Expanding Knowledge

Strategic Initiatives

Recommendations are presented in order of importance and not in the order they appear in this report.

It is recommended that:

1. the Government of Canada develop a comprehensive strategy on the provision of telephonic communications services to people who are Deaf, deafened or hard of hearing, or have a speech impediment and that this strategy be announced by March 31, 2006;

2. each federal organization develop an internal policy on the provision of telephonic communications services that will comply with and complement the strategy;

3. the strategy include specific reference to the duty to accommodate short of undue hardship as provided under the Canadian Human Rights Act;

4. Treasury Board Secretariat, or such other federal organization as may be appropriate, develop model standards or guidelines with regard to the provision of telephonic communications services; and

5. in developing policies, procedures and guidelines, and in purchasing equipment, relevant federal organizations consult people who have a hearing loss or speech impediment, and the manufacturers of, and experts on, assistive technologies.

It is recommended that the Government of Canada publish a yearly directory of the TTY numbers of all federal organizations, that the directory be updated regularly, and that it include a TTY number to call to report inaccurate numbers or inadequate service.

It is recommended that the Government of Canada constantly assess new developments in communications technology to determine how they might improve telephonic communications services for people who cannot use the regular telephone system. In particular, the process of replacing land telephone lines with a Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) system should include, from the design stage, provisions for assistive technologies, such as computer-mounted TTY systems.

It is recommended that the Government of Canada review other federal communications issues identified during this study, such as the availability of American Sign Language/langue des signes québécoise (ASL/LSQ) services, provision of real-time captioning at federal meetings and consultations, consideration of the special needs of hard of hearing people, and captioning of federally sponsored television feeds, videos and the audio portions of Web sites. It is also recommended that the government review these issues by establishing a group of experts similar to the 2001 Task Force on Access to Information for Print-Disabled Canadians.