Communication Accessibility Should Never Be "Good Enough" or "Better Than Nothing"

This week is National AccessAbility Week, a federal government initiative:

• to celebrate the valuable contributions of Canadians with disabilities
• to recognize the efforts of individuals, communities and workplaces that are actively working to remove barriers to accessibility and inclusion

The Canadian Government states, "We all benefit from a society and an economy without barriers to inclusion. When persons with disabilities can participate in all aspects of society, including accessing employment, resources and services, it enriches Canada’s economy."

The irony does not escape me that as we near the end of the celebration, I responded to yet another email from an organization that advised stenocaptioning would not be incorporated into their webinars. Since COVID-19, I have written numerous emails encouraging inclusion and accessibility be embedded into virtual events, with little success.

Before we go further, stenocaptioners use court reporter skills on the stenotype machine to provide captions through realtime technology that instantly produces readable English text, with accuracy rates of 99.5% and lag time of 2-3 seconds). To be clear, I am NOT talking about auto-generated "craptioning" (think what you see on YouTube when you click on the "CC" symbol) or the hybrid voice writer/AI/text editor combo that results in significant lag time and diminished accuracy rates of 70 to 80%. COVID-19 has undoubtedly accelerated research and improvement of voice-to-text delivery but for those of us who depend on captioning, AI is simply not a match for stenocaptioning - and the big players will be the first to tell you that. While I appreciate the advances, it is equally important to maintain a high standard. Consumers of captioning need to hold that standard and not continually express their gratitude and willingness to work with substandard services.

I am not a fan of the "naming, blaming, and shaming" tactic but I've reached that "enough is enough" boiling point. Like the #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter uprisings, I am adding my voice to the chorus to call out discriminatory behaviour, most times not seen as intentional. Last week I spoke about the challenges of people living with a hearing loss during COVID-19 in a widely-distributed Canadian Press article that appeared in the Toronto Star, National Post, CTV News online, and hundreds of media outlets across Canada. Yesterday, I posted an article about Mary Barra, CEO of GM, who discusses how to become more inclusive. This quote particularly resonated with me:

"Let’s stop asking “why” and start asking “what.” What are we going to do? In this moment, we each must decide what we can do – individually and collectively – to drive change… meaningful, deliberate change."

Consider today's article to be a more pointed discourse.

I have been a consumer of captioning for over 40 years, both in my personal and professional lives. Last fall, I launched HearVue, a social enterprise to shift the culture around communication accessibility, initially through stenocaptioning at live events. This was born out my personal frustration as a woman living with a profound hearing loss who has been shut out of numerous live events over the years. I remember clearly the tipping point of wanting to see international human rights lawyer Amal Clooney at her 2018 Toronto appearance but unable to receive captioning or get seating near the front to lipread (yet miss much of the content). The impetus to create HearVue came from reading Michelle Obama's book, "Becoming", in June of last year and having that proverbial "AHA!" moment! I wanted to create real change across Canada by combining my skills as a human rights lawyer supporting people living with disabilities with my passion for accessibility for all.

HearVue's live captioning during the five-month period from October 2019 (our first trial event with Michelle Obama) through to our last event in mid-March 2020 was seen by thousands of attendees. HearVue provided this accessibility to select events who were using captioning for the first time at no cost. It was gratifying to see that all of these first timers immediately committed to funding future events with HearVue upon seeing the tremendous benefits to their brand, their sponsors, and their attendees. Like everyone in the event space, HearVue had live events scheduled through to the end of 2020 which all disappeared with COVID, providing us with the welcome opportunity to think about Phase 2 of our social enterprise. At heart, HearVue is a movement, not a captioning agency. In such a short time, incredible gains were made, and it is disheartening to see those incremental gains dissipate in the face of a global pandemic.

The frustration I am experiencing personally (as a woman living with profound hearing loss) and professionally (as the Founder of HearVue) has been mounting, when nearly all virtual events are inaccessible or partially accessible.

Imagine being a wheelchair user trying to get into a building in your city and 90% of them are physically inaccessible (and make no mistake, while physical accessibility has improved beyond this hypothetical, there is much work still to be done). How would that make you feel, to be denied access at every turn? Do you feel valued as a member of the community, as a fully participating citizen? I can tell you that these days, I do not.

I am not unsympathetic to the COVID's devastating impact on the large-scale event industry, as I have experienced it myself with HearVue. The widespread use of free webinars and podcasts to "offer value" and "stay engaged" has been overwhelming. But how effective is the intended engagement if many are left out of the conversation with the absence of communication accessibility? As I said in the Canadian Press article last week, to paraphrase Mr. Gerstandt, if you do not intentionally include, you unintentionally exclude.

As always, it comes down to cost. Those who rely on captioning are shamed or dismissed for making the request because it's "too expensive", leading to an understandable greater reluctance to make further requests. This is where innovation and creativity come into play. There appears to be a reluctance to either offer webinars and podcasts for a nominal fee or locate sponsors to ensure inclusion and accessibility. Online events come at a cost: staff time, livestreaming, promotion and marketing, etc. It is simply not sustainable to continue to offer such events at no charge. If the desire to do so remains, what sponsor would deny a request to make a virtual event more inclusive and accessible?

There is a maddening pattern of offering substandard communication accessibility, accompanied by an attitude of "that's good enough" and "it's better than nothing" along with the "we aren't perfect but doing our best" and "those people should be grateful". Seriously?

Consider the demographics of those who most benefit from the presence of captioning: our growing Baby Boomer population, people living with hearing loss, and English as a second language users, all of whom face stigma to request accommodation. Note the "-isms" present with the refusal to provide communication accessibility to these demographics - ageism, ableism, and racism.

To state boldly, the privileged class does not understand nor is motivated to include all (or does so in a way that is substandard) because cost savings trump inclusion.

The fight for equal access to information is sustained and leaves one feeling drained. I know because over the years, I have engaged in the battles for equal access in post-secondary education, the legal system, and cultural events, and there are still many more battles to be fought and won. Yes, there have been successes, but the education is unrelenting, and more advocates and champions are needed.

In closing, to continue with communication inaccessibility for virtual events is disrespectful, unacceptable, and needs to be addressed by creative solutions. People also need to listen to us when we ask for what we need to fully participate. This is 2020, Canada - we can and must do better, especially during a global pandemic.