Toronto, ON (October 12, 2012) - The Canadian Hearing Society (CHS) announced today they will demonstrate its new mobile interactive display at an upcoming Toronto Fire Prevention Open House. The Hazard House built by Modeltech International Inc. is the first accessible mobile home equipped with communication and alerting devices provided by CHS. This model home was designed in an effort to further raise awareness on the importance of visual fire alarms and emergency notification systems for Canadians who are culturally Deaf, oral deaf, deafened, and hard of hearing. Audible alarms which are activated by heat, smoke, toxic fumes warn of imminent danger by sound. However, these notification systems fail Canadians who are Deaf or have a hearing loss because their hearing condition make them unable to hear the audible alarm.
"We are very excited to demonstrate this unit especially during fire prevention week to highlight how visual alarms work and raise awareness with the public that traditional fire alarms are completely inaccessible," said Chris Kenopic, CHS President and CEO. "Lack of access to emergency notifications is a serious issue of life and death."
The Hazard House has three hard-wired visual alarms along with strobe lights and other notification alerting devices built into the unit. The main objective was to incorporate 1:1 scale functioning electronic alerting system into an existing simulator by providing dramatic Fx's. The simulator replicates any complex home situations and demonstrates how alerting system devices will work.
"We are very proud today to have created this "Premiere" with the priceless cooperation of CHS, the Canadian leader in its field. We foresee that the specific needs of the worldwide community of the Deaf and hard of hearing community may be better satisfied in the next future with this kind of very innovative simulator," said Luke Levesque, President of Modeltech International.
CHS Mobile Interactive Display
Oct 13 Toronto – Toronto Fire Academy 895 Eastern Ave
Time: 10am to 3pm
-30-
Contact:
Gordana Mosher, Public Relations Coordinator
The Canadian Hearing Society
GMosher@chs.ca
Phone: 416-928-2535, TTY: 416-928-2545
www.chs.ca
Backgrounder
Modeltech International serves the markets of fire prevention, energy safety, energy conservation, and workplace safety, bringing its excellence in engineering, design, and production to customers since the beginning of the nineties. Our different lines of products are used around the world and our goal is to help and support public educators and trainers raise awareness about the hazards and life safety messages.
Supported by creative R&D, all of our products integrate leading edge technology and software. Interconnectivity, computer graphics, audio-visual and FX's are propelling our line of 3D simulators towards the 4th dimension.
The Canadian Hearing Society (CHS) The Canadian Hearing Society (CHS) was incorporated in 1940 to provide services, products and information to culturally Deaf, oral deaf, deafened, and hard of hearing people and to educate the hearing public. CHS is governed by a board of directors, the majority of whom are culturally Deaf, oral deaf, deafened, and hard of hearing . The organization is funded by government, internal revenue generation including fundraising, and the United Way.
Unique in North America, CHS offers a complete roster of essential services under one roof through 28 offices including sign language interpreting to bridge the gap between Deaf and hearing people; one-on-one language development for deaf children using play as the medium of learning; employment services; sign language instruction; speechreading training; and, the most complete range of communication devices that assist and augment communication including TTYs (text telephones), visual smoke detectors, baby monitors and alarm clocks.