International policy and legislation

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Canadian disability service providers appalled at government appeal

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The Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) and the Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians (AEBC) have come out with strong statements against the Canadian government’s appeal of a court ruling that federal government websites are to be made accessible to sensory impaired users by 2012.

John Rafferty, President and CEO of CNIB, said, “The fact that it took a court case to plead for full web accessibility in the first place is bad enough, but to learn that the government plans to spend more time and taxpayer money fighting the court’s ruling is just appalling.”

Robin East, President of the nationwide Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians, echoed these sentiments, saying, “we are outraged by the government’s decision to appeal this landmark decision”.


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Canadian access coalition calls for 100% accessibility by 2020

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The Access 2020 Coalition has sought the support of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) for its new Access Initiative to assist broadcasters to become accessible to all Canadians who are Deaf, hearing impaired, blind or vision impaired.

The initiative would see 1% of all TV ownership transactions from 2010 to 2015 allocated to a not-for-profit fund that would finance the transition to complete accessibility on all distribution platforms.


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Canadian government to appeal accessible website ruling

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The Canadian government is planning to appeal a court ruling that federal government websites are to be made accessible to sensory impaired users by 2012.

The court decision was won by a blind Toronto woman in November 2010 after she discovered she could not apply for a federal job online or complete the 2006 census. The court found that government websites were not compliant with accessibility standards and constituted a breach of equality rights. It gave the government 15 months to make its websites compliant with the Canadian Charter of Rights, under supervision by the court.


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