TTY (teletypewriter) users are not asking Bell Canada for special or better treatment; they are asking for equitable treatment.   Removing the 50% long-distance toll discount on calls made on TTYs would impose unfair, inequitable costs.  The obvious reason, which Bell Canada certainly acknowledged in the past, is that a typed conversation takes more time than a spoken conversation, to convey the same amount of information.  Deaf and hard of hearing TTY users want to pay the same price to convey the same amount of information as their hearing counterparts – not less, but certainly not more.

In the Ontario Government’s Fall economic statement released yesterday, Finance Minister Dwight Duncan made assurances that the current government “will never lose sight of the fact that underneath all the statistics, all the uncertainty and all the turmoil, there are real people with real fears, real concerns and very real needs.”

The Canadian Hearing Society (CHS) commends the Ministry of Community and Social Services (MCSS) for determining that Information and Communications be a topic addressed in an accessibility standard.  Thank you also for including CHS in the membership of the Information and Communications Standard Development Committee, as barriers to information and communications are faced daily by our constituents – culturally Deaf, oral deaf, deafened and hard of hearing Ontarians.  MCSS has demonstrated an attitude of inclusiveness and public engagement in arriving at and seeking input into this proposed standard.

Recently a deaf senior was evicted from her apartment.  CHS President and CEO Chris Kenopic responds to this situation with a letter.

Click here to see the letter.

Healthy Homes Renovation Tax Credit announcement should include emergency communication devices and visual fire alarms to help seniors with hearing loss stay safely at home.

Letter to Premier - Nov 2011