Ofcom surveyed deaf people with different levels of hearing loss to assess the use and value of current text relay and other services and whether or not new technologies provide better means of communication for Deaf and hearing impaired people.
Key findings of the survey were that:
Conducted by the Australian Institute, the survey showed that out of the 1294 respondents, 94% said they were aware of captioning, 30% said they sometimes used it and 3% said they always used the service when watching television.
The Single Equality Scheme is Ofcom’s action plan towards achieving its seven goals for diversity and equality. Some goals are internal, such as aiming to increase the number of people from diverse groups working at Ofcom, including in executive and advisory capacities.
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”.
