Hello, and thank you.
Before I begin my prepared statement, I'd like to apologize on behalf of Yves Séguin, who is not joining me here today. He would have presented to you the consumer side of things. Having said that, I'd like to tell you that I am a child of deaf parents, and as such, have grown up in the deaf community and am very involved in the deaf culture. I will do my very best to address any questions around the consumers, being very close to them.
My name is Beverley Milligan. I'm the executive director of Media Access Canada or MAC, a not-for-profit organization with a mandate to execute a business plan to achieve 100% accessibility by 2020.
MAC is leading the Access 2020 Coalition that is supported by every major accessibility organization in Canada, including the Canadian Hearing Society, the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, and the Canadian Hard of Hearing Association, to mention a few.
Access 2020 Coalition represents an ever-growing group of individuals and organizations that support Media Access Canada's mandate of achieving 100% accessible content on all distribution platforms in a decade.
The tools to achieve accessibility have existed for years. Captions write out TV's audio content while described video narrates important visual elements to answer the “What's happening now?” question that blind Canadians must otherwise ask families and friends. While the technology is available, achieving 100% accessibility will require a fundamental commitment on the part of the CRTC.
MAC and Access 2020 have been the leaders of the 1% for 100% tangible benefits campaign to fund the necessary business model for 100% accessibility. So far the funding is not being made available, but we do anxiously anticipate a CRTC decision in the coming weeks. In the recent CRTC decision concerning Shaw's acquisition of Canwest, the CRTC accepted Shaw's proposal to spend $38 million of tangible benefits to ensure 100,000 households would not lose over-the-air analog signals in 2011. Shaw got approval to spend 21% of the tangible benefits it proposed to ensure that several hundred thousand Canadians would not lose access to Canwest stations in the analog to digital transition, but there was never any discussion of reaching the millions of Canadians for whom Canadian TV programming has never been accessible and is still not.
How could it be justified to spend $38 million to maintain access to the broadcasting system for a few hundred thousand households and yet provide nothing for the more than 4.3 million Canadians who have never had access?
The CRTC should be clear and open about its funding priorities during the coming transition. While we do not begrudge any Canadian access to the Canadian broadcasting system, we would still like to understand the framework through which the commission and others will allocate resources to minimize disruption. It's our understanding to date that no funding has been committed, certainly none that reaches Canadians with disabilities.
The transition to digital television threatens to make the situation even worse for millions of Canadians who rely on captioning and description. As of August 31 of this year, Canadians with tube televisions will no longer be able to receive over-the-air television signals unless they purchase a new digital television set, subscribe to a BDU, or acquire an analog-to-digital box from an electronics store. I note these boxes are in short supply, a situation that could result in price hikes during the transition period.
In the United States, where the transition to digital took place in 2009, it was estimated that one-third of the households with these older televisions had at least one family member who relied on captions. The number in Canada is likely to be similar, so a substantial proportion of the households affected by the transition to digital will be those who rely on captioning or description.
Imagine a deaf senior citizen living alone on a fixed income who turns on her television September 1, only to receive no signal. She may believe the television is broken and will have to somehow discover what has actually happened. With no opportunity to plan and budget, how will this senior navigate through the very real challenges she and others with disabilities face from what to us might seem no more than a minor inconvenience?
In the United States, a coupon system was used to assist in the transition, with the cost of the digital box covered by coupons provided by the government. Further, an in-depth educational program targeting community service and consumer organizations was developed, funded, and implemented. None of this exists for the Canadian transition. Funds should be made available to help the many Canadians who will face a financial outlay as a result of the transition.
Some provision should be made to ease the economic impact, as disabled Canadians will now be obliged to subscribe to either cable or satellite. These subscriptions should be available free or at a heavily discounted rate for two reasons: first, all Canadians should have at least minimum access to Canadian broadcasting at no cost; and, second, given the broadcasting system is not 100% accessible, Canadians with disabilities should not have to pay the full cost of something they cannot use. For example, only four hours of a 126-hour broadcast week is described, which is equivalent to less than 3% access.
The move to digital broadcasting will also make it more complicated to activate captioning and description in the digital box hand unit itself. Even if someone has the necessary equipment, they may well find it virtually impossible to get it to work without outside assistance. It can take as many as 27 clicks to activate captioning on the digital handset.
The CRTC recognizes by the very existence of their social policies that some Canadians and certainly Canadians with disabilities require alternative ways to access content. Without captioning or description, they are among the most isolated and hardest-to-reach groups in Canada. Because the broadcasting system is not fully accessible, it will not be adequate to inform Canadians with disabilities about the transition to digital television. The broadcasting system itself will not be adequate to inform Canadians about the transition to digital television. We need to devise alternative ways of reaching out to Canadians with disabilities to ensure they are prepared for the coming changes. Without a concerted and coordinated effort in advance of the digital transition, this already marginalized group of 4.3 million Canadians will face still greater isolation.
Considering the scope of the problem and the fact that the transition has been planned for years, it is a matter of concern that no efforts have been made to prepare for this. In September 2010 a group of 40 concerned organizations, academics, and researchers, including Media Access Canada and the Access 2020 Coalition sent a letter to the Prime Minister asking for a national campaign to educate the public and, in particular, to reach out to disabled Canadians. No real response was ever received.
It's vital that the government take a leading role in the effort to inform and educate Canadians, especially disabled Canadians, about the coming transition. To leave the job to individual broadcasters largely owned by BDUs makes no sense, as their commercial interests would lead them to maximize subscriptions without regard for the financial situation of the individual concerned. A publicly funded educational program should be initiated as soon as possible and should operate in cooperation with community groups, senior centres, and disability organizations. We need a community-based education strategy to inform and prepare--but it won't be easy. In addition to the limited access in broadcasting, Canadians with disabilities also have limited access to the Internet. This means a broadcaster or BDU that is relying on their website to inform people and organizations about the transition will have little or no impact on Canadians with disabilities.
MAC works closely with disability organizations across Canada who are well positioned to help in the design and implementation of a strategy to reach disabled Canadians and support them in the planned transition, but we cannot ask yet again for the not-for-profit and charitable organizations to volunteer their services or finance a communication plan that is squarely the responsibility of Heritage Canada and the CRTC.
While we look forward to being part of the solution, we look to the government for leadership and financial commitment to this important issue.
Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this process. I look forward to your questions.