Please brew yourself a big pot of coffee and put aside an hour to plow through the CRTC’s “Let’s Talk TV” survey here:
www.crtc.gc.ca/talktv
About 90% through the survey, there are questions about captioning. Most importantly, there are questions about whether you are willing to PAY for captioning. This is an idea the entire Deaf community must stop dead in its tracks!
We have a RIGHT to captioned programming. Because it is our right, we must NOT be forced to pay for it.
Would they demand that wheelchair-users PAY for their own ramps and accessible washrooms? We notice the CRTC is not asking if blind viewers should be required to pay for descriptive video. Why are they asking ONLY if Deaf people should be required to pay for captioning?
The survey is difficult, but please do it just to get to the captioning questions, and then tell the CRTC very clearly we cannot be made to pay for our own right to accessibility.
