About 600 words and just as many numbers. Fine print,
graphics, charts, dates and explanations. That’s your monthly phone bill. But say your eyesight was failing. How would you read it?
Two months ago, the Canadian Radio-television and
Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) forced phone companies and their subsidiaries to provide bills in braille, large print or
electronic format for the visually impaired. The CRTC ruled on a
case launched by a middle-aged blind man from Ottawa more than five years ago.
With so many companies offering competitive long distance and
cellular packages, the regulatory body deemed it unjust
discrimination to deny blind customers the necessary tools to make
informed consumer choices.
And not a moment too soon, said CRTC spokesperson Campbell Laidlaw. Canada’s aging population will increasingly need help to read all that small print.
“Its implications were and remain quite profound,” said Laidlaw,
director of consumer policy. “It and subsequent rulings are
indicative of the awareness of people who are disabled that not only do they have rights they can exercise, but technology abounds to
meet their requirements.”
Edmonton physiotherapist Janet Brandly has been blind since birth and recalled, as a university student, having to hire someone with sight to read through her mail once a week. A confessed control
freak, Brandly resented someone else going through her bills and she couldn’t always be sure every word was read.
“It comes down to the privacy issue. As blind people, we have to
give up a lot of privacy that sighted people don’t. Even something
as simple as the mail,” said Brandly, whose sighted husband reads
through the bills. “I think the principle of billing in alternative
format is long overdue. We just have to make sure it’s handled
properly.”
* That means privacy again. If companies contract out braille
services, third parties have access to people’s private information.
“There must be a clause, a safety net built in there to protect
information,” she said.
Telus spokesperson Nick Culo said Telus has been providing
alternative billing for the visually impaired for about four years.
The latest CRTC ruling requires major carriers such as Telus and
Bell to ensure its long distance resellers, such as Sears or
Zellers, provide the same billing options on demand.
Right now, about 1,200 Alberta and British Columbia customers get
* their bills in large type, 50 get braille bills and 20 receive
electronic diskettes which run off expensive software to vocalize
text for users.
Telus electronically transfers billing information to the Canadian
National Institute for the Blind which then transforms them into the preferred braille or electronic format and mails them to customers. All Telus privacy rules and regulations apply to CNIB staff, Culo said, and customers sign a waiver permitting their bills be handled by a third party. It costs Telus $20 for each braille or electronic bill. Large print bills are produced in-house.
Chris Stark and his wife, Marie, launched a series of complaints
against Bell Canada in 1997 which led to a host of new CRTC rules
favouring the blind.
“It ain’t charity and it ain’t perks and it ain’t something
special. It’s the cost of doing business as the population greys,”
said 54-year-old Stark from his home near Ottawa. “It’s a mark of
our independence to read a bill and see a rate change and a service
charge and understand it. You can’t make a choice on what’s best for you if you can’t read the information.”
CNIB has about 9,000 clients in Alberta, two thirds of whom are 65
years old or older. Nearly half of all clients have macular
degeneration — blurry central vision which affects mostly the
elderly. Only about five per cent of blind people are proficient in
* braille.
–
Sunday, June 2, 2002BYLINE Lisa Gregoire, Journal Staff Writer Edmonton Journal