Mark Rejhon
Member
- Joined
- Oct 5, 2003
- Messages
- 355
- Reaction score
- 10
I hereby open a new topic, since this merits a separate discussion.
Solution: Have Canada COMPETE! Let us all Canadian deafies DEMAND our government pay a subsidy to improve our relay services.
We don't have IP Relay.
We don't have Captioned Telephone.
We don't have BlackBerry relay.
We don't have AIM Relay.
We don't have Video Relay!!!
As a software developer, I am lucky to invent my own homebrew Bell Canada IP Relay system (MiniTTY) and I got my own workarounds to let me use WebCapTel in Canada (Hint: I own two U.S. phone lines by a U.S. phone company). I use Rogers SpinVox voice-to-text voice-recognition voicemail so I can read my voicemails. I use a BlackBerry maxed out with features such as JiveTalk and mobile IP-Relay with Bell Canada using my homebrew solution. Amongst other things. I'm one of the few deaf Canadian smart enough to develop workarounds that allow me to use a lot of the enhanced services in Canada. It's sad that as an educated Canadian, that I need high level of technical knowledge to take advantage of enhanced services in Canada where none exist.
It's not Sorenson's fault. My interpretation is that it is the disparity of subsidies that the U.S. government pays Sorenson which in turns pays Canadian interpretors to work for the U.S. Our Canadian government needs to do the same to balance this playing field!
Yes, you heard me right, your taxpayer dollar pays for Relay, VRS, IP-Relay, etc. It's called the Telecommunications Relay Fund.
www.fcc.gov/cgb/dro/trs.html <-- Genuine U.S. government site, that shows Sorenson is PAID by taxpayers! The same dollars are coaxing our interpretors out of our country.
And yes, you heard me right, Canada isn't doing jack about subsidizing the improvement of deaf accessibility.
And yes, I'm a Canadian complaining. We're a great country, but I'll be blunt: Deaf accessibility is second fiddle. We may joke about a few shortcomings of the U.S. at times -- but I welcome "BLAME CANADA" when it comes to deaf accessibility. Bring on the insults to our Canadian government, I say!
Not convinced? See Sorenson's website, they implicitly admit they're subsidized by the U.S. taxpayer while they are not by Canada: www.sorensonvrs.com/canada/
And they're trying to petition Canada in doing the same:
Thus, I'm a Canadian. And I don't blame Sorenson. It's our government's fault, not Sorenson!
We're not debating whether this is shady or not (Yes Sorenson might be unethical sometimes). Our loss of deaf interpretors, bottom line, the FAULT STILL LIES WITH CANADA. We're losing out BAD because we're not helping our deaf industry innovate.
P.S. I'm happy we have invented a little wonderful pocket machine called the BlackBerry, and it almost makes up for everything. Almost.
This is not a problem: It's a problem of the U.S. government subsidizing relay/interpretors, and Canada not subsidizing. The playing field is unbalanced.
Solution: Have Canada COMPETE! Let us all Canadian deafies DEMAND our government pay a subsidy to improve our relay services.
We don't have IP Relay.
We don't have Captioned Telephone.
We don't have BlackBerry relay.
We don't have AIM Relay.
We don't have Video Relay!!!
As a software developer, I am lucky to invent my own homebrew Bell Canada IP Relay system (MiniTTY) and I got my own workarounds to let me use WebCapTel in Canada (Hint: I own two U.S. phone lines by a U.S. phone company). I use Rogers SpinVox voice-to-text voice-recognition voicemail so I can read my voicemails. I use a BlackBerry maxed out with features such as JiveTalk and mobile IP-Relay with Bell Canada using my homebrew solution. Amongst other things. I'm one of the few deaf Canadian smart enough to develop workarounds that allow me to use a lot of the enhanced services in Canada. It's sad that as an educated Canadian, that I need high level of technical knowledge to take advantage of enhanced services in Canada where none exist.
It's not Sorenson's fault. My interpretation is that it is the disparity of subsidies that the U.S. government pays Sorenson which in turns pays Canadian interpretors to work for the U.S. Our Canadian government needs to do the same to balance this playing field!
Yes, you heard me right, your taxpayer dollar pays for Relay, VRS, IP-Relay, etc. It's called the Telecommunications Relay Fund.
www.fcc.gov/cgb/dro/trs.html <-- Genuine U.S. government site, that shows Sorenson is PAID by taxpayers! The same dollars are coaxing our interpretors out of our country.
And yes, you heard me right, Canada isn't doing jack about subsidizing the improvement of deaf accessibility.
And yes, I'm a Canadian complaining. We're a great country, but I'll be blunt: Deaf accessibility is second fiddle. We may joke about a few shortcomings of the U.S. at times -- but I welcome "BLAME CANADA" when it comes to deaf accessibility. Bring on the insults to our Canadian government, I say!
Not convinced? See Sorenson's website, they implicitly admit they're subsidized by the U.S. taxpayer while they are not by Canada: www.sorensonvrs.com/canada/
And they're trying to petition Canada in doing the same:
Thus, I'm a Canadian. And I don't blame Sorenson. It's our government's fault, not Sorenson!
We're not debating whether this is shady or not (Yes Sorenson might be unethical sometimes). Our loss of deaf interpretors, bottom line, the FAULT STILL LIES WITH CANADA. We're losing out BAD because we're not helping our deaf industry innovate.
P.S. I'm happy we have invented a little wonderful pocket machine called the BlackBerry, and it almost makes up for everything. Almost.
