The Canadian Human Rights Commission has issued a new report on telecommunications accessibility in the federally regulated private sector.
This report is the second of a series of two looking at communication access for people who are Deaf, deafened or hard of hearing. The first report, No Answer: A Review of Government of Canada Telephonic Communication with People Who are Deaf, Deafened, Hard of Hearing, or have a Speech Impediment, was published in July 2005.
The new report shows that people who cannot use the regular telephone system are at a serious disadvantage when communicating because organizations either do not provide TTY service or, if they do, it often does not work. People who want to make a TTY call have around a one-in-four chance to find a number listed for a TTY. Furthermore, when a TTY is listed, they have less than a 50/50 chance to complete a call successfully.
