Overview

Expanding Knowledge

Strategic Initiatives

The Government of Canada is failing to adequately accommodate the needs of Canadians who, as a result of a disability, cannot use the regular government telephone system.

Most Canadians take it for granted that they can look up the number of a federal department or agency in the blue pages of their telephone directory or on the Internet, make a phone call to that organization and get the information they are seeking within a reasonable period of time.

But this is often not the case for people who are Deaf, deafened, hard of hearing, or have a speech impediment and, as a result, cannot use the regular phone service. As this report documents, for them there is only a fifty-fifty chance that they will find a number listed for a Teletypewriter (TTY), the device they need to communicate with government offices. And when a TTY is listed, there is only a one-in-three chance that they will be able to complete a call successfully.

The following figure illustrates the key results of the study.

Based on this study, there appear to be two main reasons for the current situation:

• lack of adequate policies, procedures and guidelines to ensure that the right of equitable access is met; and

• failure to properly manage communications services for those who cannot use the regular telephone system.

Action is required to address this situation.

Following are the key recommendations of the study.

1. A Comprehensive Strategy

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.

2. TTY directory

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.

3. New technology

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.

4. Other issues

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.