CHARGE Syndrome Canada
Newsletter
Summer 2006
Vol. 1 No.11
Sign language access
improved
Genetic Alliance Conference Review
"Marital Arts" parents to compete in International tournament
Sign Langauge Access Improved
In Canada this August, there was a ruling that deaf and deafblind Canadians have been granted the right to have sign langauge interpreters payed for by the government, when accessing federal government services. This means contracting with the government, or even gaining access to any of the policy development processes will be much easier for Canada's 300,000 deaf or deafblind community members. Some of the federal services this may effect include passport offices, RCMP detachments, boarder crossings, and so on.
While Canadians who are deaf or deafblind have been paying for these services themselves, they argued that it was discriminatory under the "Charter of Rights and Freedoms". Interpreters fluent in American Sign Language or la Langue des Sourds due Quebec, cost about $40 to $60 when contracted short-term, it is expected that the government will now need to budget millions of dollars for this purpose in the future.
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