T-911 valid concerns!!!!!! NEED YOUR ATTENTION! Letter to CRTC in ASL - a very good watch! Letter in CRTC in English - March 25, 2014 Mr. John Traversy Secretary General Canadian Radiotelevision and Telecommunications Commission Ottawa, ON K1A 0N2 Mr. Traversy: Ms. Jody Robertson, Director of Corporation Communications & Corporate Secretary at EComm911 in Vancouver suggested that I contact you to express my concerns about the intent and purposes of the text-to-911 (T911) system that CRTC ordered for the deaf, hard of hearing, and speech impaired citizens. I am deaf. After two attempts at registering with Bell Mobility to gain access to the T911 programme, I came to a realization that the registration requirement might be a violation of my privacy rights. I feel that the only information my carrier should have about me are my address, my account number, and my ability to pay. I do not feel it is any of their business to find out about my being deaf. So to register with a carrier does not make sense because the T911 operating centres are independent of any carriers. I object to this registration. More importantly, this T911 programme is the first time I have encountered coming from the CRTC as being used exclusively for the deaf, hard of hearing, and speech impaired citizens. Teletype relay services, IP relay services, and televised closed captioning are open to all, not just these aforementioned citizens. These services are for the benefit of all. I will not discuss further how all obtain benefit from these services as that is not the point. My point concerns the exclusion of hearing people who can communicate verbally from the T911 programme. From my own experience as a deaf person, I know we have fought for equality with hearing people. However, we have never ever asked for special preferential treatment from any governmental bodies. I know that the CRTC completed its hearings on video relay services last October, and many of us emphasized that VRS is not for what the CRTC calls “hearing impaired”; it is for the benefit of all. I recall last fall that the CRTC has stubbornly viewed the VRS programme to be for the “hearing impaired” Canadians, and I am making this still another attempt to change its mindset. T911 should be for all! I want that mindset to prevail throughout the CRTC. An American friend of mine was asked by Federal Communications Commission in Washington, D.C. about extending to only the deaf and speech impaired the T911 accessibility. He replied that he was opposed to this special preferential treatment from the FCC and that there are numerous occasions when the hearing people will want to use T911. As a result, in its website, fcc.gov/document/fcc-proposes-action-accelerate-nationwide-text-911, the FCC notes “Implementing text-to-911 will keep pace with how consumers communicate today and can provide a lifesaving alternative in situations…where a 911 voice call could endanger the caller.” They have had their Virginia Tech, Newtown, and other massacres. We do have our own share of violence here in Canada such as Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal. Crime is on rise here in Surrey. To delay the availability of T911 for these hearing people is beyond my own ability to comprehend! Hearing people should have the right to select whatever method they feel the most appropriate and the safest to contact a 911 centre. We deaf people should have the same right to make the selection: through IP relay, through teletype relay service, and through texting. One feature of the Canadian T911 program disturbs me as a deaf person. It requires dialing, not texting, 911. In its website, ecomm911.ca/calling-911/T911system.php, E-Comm 911 states that the caller must wait for a text response from a T911 dispatcher. It cautions the caller might have to wait up to two minutes for the response. If it does not come through, then the website suggests “If you do not receive a text from 9-1-1 within two minutes, end the call (hang up) and dial 9-1-1 again.” There is no way any type of emergency will wait two minutes! To reiterate my grave concern, why can’t one text immediately, “AMBULANCE NOW. HEART ATTACK”? That website implies we would have to reveal our locations. Why should we? My smartphone has a GPS program that any 911 operator can utilize to determine my location. In the United States, plans are underway to allow Americans to immediately text 911 as soon as it becomes universally available. Not here in Canada. May I suggest that the CRTC require the rapid widespread availability of T911 to all Canadians, eliminate the registration requirements, and allow quick texting instead of dialing. Until this is accomplished, may I suggest that the CRTC suspend the operations of T911. While I appreciate Ms. Robertson’s effort to have my carrier become accessible to the T911 programme, I no longer intend to register with them. Equality, not special preferential treatment (which at best is dubious), is what I am seeking for myself and all other Canadians! Thank you. Yours sincerely, Wayne Sinclair Cc: Ms. Jody Robertson
Posted on: Thu, 27 Mar 2014 00:02:38 +0000
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