CRTC Launches Canada Video Relay Service

Deaf News: CRTC press releases "Video Relay Service: A new communications era in Canada."

OTTAWA - GATINEAU -- Today on September, 28, 2016 the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) joins the Canadian Administrator of the Video Relay Service (VRS) to launch this service during an event at the Museum of History, in the National Capital Region, along with the Honourable Carla Qualtrough, Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities.

The launch of the VRS opens a new communications era in Canada that will simplify communications between Canadians who are Deaf, Hard of Hearing or Speech Impaired and other Canadians, and vice versa.

This made-for-Canada service enhances the ability of Canadian’s whose first language is American Sign Language (ASL) or Langue des Signes Québécoise (LSQ) to participate fully in Canada’s communication system, and in Canadian society more broadly.

In October 2013, the CRTC held one of the most accessible public hearings in its history, during which Deaf, Hard-of-Hearing and Speech-Impaired Canadians spoke about how video relay service would make an important difference in their lives - as seen on this video in ASL with closed captions.

Quick Facts - It is estimated that there will be some 20,000 users of the Video Relay Service.

There is no charge to use the Video Relay Service. However, the service requires high-speed Internet access and an Internet-enabled device (e.g. a computer, smartphone, or tablet) that supports videoconferencing.

People who want to use the service can contact SRV Canada VRS to register.

The administrator, who is independent of the CRTC, manages the Video Relay Service and ensures its proper operation.

More details, please visit the CAV website: http://cav-acs.ca

“We believe people with disabilities should be able to fully participate in Canadian life as easily as anyone else. I understand what a difference it makes in a person’s life when they have the tools they need to succeed. So I am very pleased to see the launch of Canada’s Video Relay Service. This is a big step in the right direction.” - Carla Qualtrough, Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities

“The implementation of the Video Relay Service will have a concrete and positive impact on the lives of Canadians who are Deaf, hard of hearing or speech impaired. The CRTC appreciates all the efforts put forth to ensure the success of this new service. This initiative illustrates strongly Canada’s vision for an inclusive society which values equality of opportunity.” - Jean-Pierre Blais, Chairman of the CRTC.

Related Products:
SRV Canada VRS
Policies, Decisions and Orders for Accessible Phone Services

SOURCE

Follow @CAV:
Facebook - https://facebook.com/canadavrssrv
Official Site - http://cav-acs.ca

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@Video Relay Service

CPD Gets New VRS Equipment To Assist Deafies

Deaf News: Cleveland Police Department gets new video relay service equipment to assist Deaf community.

CLEVELAND, OH -- The Cleveland Police Department has invested in new equipment to help its officers better serve the Deaf community.

The department announced Wednesday that all officers have been trained to use video technology that gives them instant access to an American Sign Language interpreter.

Officials from the police department and local advocates for the hearing-impaired demonstrated the new equipment Thursday.

"The reality is there are barriers in place for some members of our community," Cleveland police Capt. James McPike said. "This grant was intended to try to remove those barriers for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing community."

Each of the city's five police districts is stocked with an iPad equipped with the ZVRS video interpreter application. The application gives officers dealing with a Deaf crime victim, suspect or witness access to an interpreter within seconds.

The technology was purchased using a portion of a $350,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice's Office on Violence Against Women that was awarded to the department in 2011, Cleveland police Sgt. Jennifer Ciaccia said.

The Cleveland Hearing and Speech Center and the Domestic Violence and Child Advocacy Center helped train the police force.

Deaf women in the U.S. experience domestic and sexual violence at rates twice those of hearing women, according to the Vera Institute of Justice, a nonprofit organization that advocates for fairness in the justice system. Yet they often encounter barriers when seeking help, from a phone-based 911 system to having their credibility as witnesses in court questioned.

The police department purchased the equipment after getting feedback from the Deaf community, said Maria O'Neil Ruddock, coordinator of training and outreach services for the Cleveland Hearing and Speech Center.

"The reason it's here is because the Deaf community has told us, 'We want access to the police, we want to be able to communicate, but it's difficult,'" O'Neil Ruddock said.

Cleveland is only one of two large police departments in the country using this technology, she added.

The department is also updating its general police orders to include a policy about communicating with the Deaf, McPike said. A draft of that policy is still in the approval stage.

Ciaccia said the interpreting technology is not related to a binding agreement with the Justice Department that requires the Cleveland police to improve the way they interact with citizens. The addition of the technology is the latest in a string of efforts by the department to expand training.

Mayor Frank Jackson announced in December that officers received first aid training and emergency medical kits.

The Cleveland Police Academy class that graduated in October was the first to receive 40 hours of crisis intervention training.

SOURCE - CLEVELANDMETRO

Comcast Data Caps Make Life For Deaf Difficult

Deaf News: Comcast's data usage caps may be a hindrance to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community.

PHILADELPHIA -- It’s hard to find a Comcast Internet customer who doesn’t loathe the idea of the company’s forthcoming data usage limits, but usage caps may prove particularly painful to one group: the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

Comcast’s data usage caps for its Internet customers will expand to eight more cities Tuesday. The caps limit users to 300GB of data monthly, with the alternative of facing fines or paying a steeper rate to get unlimited access.

And unlimited access is especially crucial for many in the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing community who use Video Relay Service, or VRS, to conduct phone calls. The calls are facilitated using a sign language interpreter on the other end - and that requires an Internet video feed.

“It’s really important to the Deaf community because it provides visual communication,” said Dan Hoffman, the American Sign Language and Deaf Studies program coordinator for Utah Valley University.

VRS does not use that much data - 5-10 megabits per second, according to Sorenson VRS, one of the leading VRS companies - but that adds up when you're also using your connection for normal browsing.

“Hearing people can call using their phones any time they want to…they don’t have any cap like that,” said Hoffman, who is Deaf and also a Comcast customer.

For Hoffman and others in the Deaf community, equal access means that if hearing people can communicate without time limits using telephones, that the Deaf community ought to be able to also. He said rather than pay Comcast's steeper rates for unlimited use, many Deaf people would simply transfer services if a cap were in place.

The Federal Communications Commission does have protections in place to ensure the adequate provision of telecommunications services to the Deaf community, but from a cursory read, it is unclear if capping VRS use is an Americans with Disabilities Act violation. The communications agency was not able to comment on the story.

SOURCE

Fap Guy Calls Deaf Video Service 4,000 Times

"Fapping Guy" calls Deaf video service 4,000 times, allegedly got naked, masturbated in front of ZVRS employees.

NEW YORK CITY -- A Brooklyn man is using a video calling service for the Deaf to reach out and touch himself, the company providing the service alleges in a lawsuit.

David Marcano is one of the most fervent users of software offered by a Florida company, ZVRS, which gets federal money every time a hearing-disabled person uses its product to place a call, the company claims.

The software allows the Deaf to call one of ZVRS’s sign language interpreters via video chat. The interpreters act as operators, placing calls to third parties on behalf of the Deaf person and then translating the call.

But Marcano, 51, isn’t Deaf, and his calls don’t need any translating, the company says in Brooklyn federal court papers.

Marcano has made 4,646 calls to ZVRS since Jan. 1 “for the sole purpose of masturbating in view of ZVRS’s employees,” the business says.

“In every call made through ZVRS’s software platform, Marcano appears on the video call for the purpose of exposing his genitals or masturbating to ZVRS’s female staff,” according to the suit which seeks unspecified damages.

As soon as ZVRS cancels Marcano’s account, he uses false information to create a new one, they gripe. He’s called from eight different numbers, and contacted them as recently as Sept. 21, the company charges.

He has signed up for new ZVRS accounts under the names “Davey Mareno,” “Davey Mar,” “Dave Maccan,” “Dave Mard” and “Dave Macan,” among others.

The calls have cost the company productivity and business and left ZVRS’s employees with emotional distress, the firm claims.

ZVRS also is seeking an injunction against Marcano to stop his hands-on use of their service, accusing him of fraud and breach of contract because he signed up for software he doesn’t need.

Marcano didn’t respond to messages sent to each of the 24 e-mail addresses ZVRS says he used to create the fake accounts.

SOURCE - NEW YORK POST

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Video Relay Service For Deaf - Phone Sex Scene

Hilarious movie clip - How to call to phone sex if you are Deaf.

“The Little Death” does have one terrific ace up its sleeve: a fifth story, almost completely unconnected to the others, featuring Monica (Erin James, a bit of a Sally Hawkins lookalike), who works at a Skype-like video service translating phone calls for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community.

On a slow night, she winds up on a call with Sam (T.J. Power), only to find that he wants her to mediate his conversation with a phone-sex operator (Genevieve Hegney). What ensues is a perfectly timed, beautifully structured verbal and gestural farce that manages to be at once raucously funny, sweetly touching and genuinely romantic.

Rife with awkwardness and miscommunication, and keenly attuned to the reality of what a mixed blessing technology can be, the story would work well as a stand-enough short; as such, it’s easily the most promising evidence here that Lawson the writer-director may yet have bigger and better things ahead of him... Read More.

The Little Death Official Trailer - Directed by and starring Josh Lawson also with Bojana Novakovic, Damon Herriman.

The Little Death is a truly original comedy about sex, love, relationships and taboo. In a multi story narrative, we peer behind the closed doors of a seemingly normal suburban street. A woman with a dangerous fantasy and her partners struggle to please her. A man who begins an affair with his own wife without her knowing anything about it.

A couple struggling to keep things together after a sexual experiment spins out of control. A woman who can only find pleasure in her husband's pain. A call centre operator caught in the middle of a dirty and chaotic phone call. And the distractingly charming new neighbour who connects them all.

The little Death explores why do we want what we want? How far will we go to get it? What are the consequences of that fleeting moment of sexual ecstasy?

Release Date: 25 September 2014 (AUS)
Director: Josh Lawson
Cast: Josh Lawson, Bojana Novakovic, Damon Herriman
Genre: Comedy
Country: Australia
Production Co: Head Gear Films, See Pictures
Distributors: Entertainment One Films, Hopscotch Films

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CRTC Approves Video Relay Service In Canada

CRTC announces the Deaf and Hard of Hearing people across Canada will have access to new video relay service.

OTTAWA, Ontario -- The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission CRTC announced on April 22, 2014, that video relay services (VRS) will now be available in Canada for Deaf people who communicate in American Sign Language ASL and Langue des signes québécoise LSQ.

Video relay services enable callers to use the services of a sign language interpreter through the Internet. The interpreter interprets spoken English into sign for the deaf caller, and voices into English the signs of the Deaf caller.

“Many Canadians who are Deaf, hard of hearing or speech impaired learn American Sign Language or Langue des signes québécoise early in life," Peter Menzies, Vice-Chairman of Telecommunications, and Chairman of the hearing panel.

"In many cases, neither English nor French is their first language. Video relay service will make it possible for them to communicate in sign language with ease, whether it’s to make a doctor’s appointment, speak to a friend or make any other type of call. At the same time, we are taking the necessary steps to ensure that this service is introduced in an efficient manner and as quickly as possible.”

Users will require their own high-speed Internet service and a device connected to the Internet such as a smartphone, tablet, computer, or videophone. Additional services such as call display and voicemail will be billed at rates similar to those charged by other service providers.

An independent administrator will be created to supervise the implementation and provision of video relay services and ensure that the views of users are taken into account during the decision-making process. The CRTC will review the video relay service three years after it has been launched to determine whether the service is efficiently meeting the needs of Canadians.

The CRTC is requiring that VRS become available to Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing or speech impaired as early as the fall of 2015. The VRS service is offered at no charge, but users must sign up to use it. People who want to use the service can use their own phone number to access VRS. An estimated 20,000 Canadians will be the primary users of VRS... Read More.

Chris Kenopic Vlog On CRTC VRS Announcement:

"CRTC announces that Deaf, hard of hearing or speech impaired people across Canada will have access to new telecommunications services in 2015! Chris Kenopic, president and CEO of the Canadian Hearing Society, delivers a vlog on VRS in Canada."

What If... The Quest for VRS in Canada:

"The BCVRS Committee has co-produced a short documentary-drama film with Lenois Productions. It speaks directly to the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunication Commissioners about the reality of TTY vs. VRS in the Deaf community of Canada."

Funding to support video relay service in Canada will be taken from the National Contribution Fund, and will be capped at CAD 30 million annually. To ensure the perspectives of users are reflected in the decision making process, an independent administrator will be created to oversee the implementation and provision of video relay service... Read More.

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Deaf Relay Service Parody

Deaf relay at your service parody.

An inside look at the high-tech critical communication service provided to Deaf citizens so they can access any service in an uncensored environment. Directors: Jeanette Castillo, Diane Wilkins.

To activate this feature, press the "CC" button.

Founded in 1977, Frameline is the nation's only nonprofit organization solely dedicated to the funding, exhibition, distribution and promotion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender media arts.

Frameline Voices is a new digital initiative that showcases diverse LGBT stories and expands access to films by and about people of color, transgender people, youth, and elders. More information: https://frameline.org - SOURCE.

CANADA VRS RALLY

Deaf Canadians awareness-raising campaign the video relay service rally.

CANADA -- Let's start a rally at the CRTC office on January 13rd, 2012 across Canada. Please watch Tien Verstraete's comment in the video. Please spread this video into the Deaf community to support the VRS in Canada.

Canada VRS Article:
canada.com/Service+allows+deaf+talk+telephone/5891617/story.

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