City council agreed this week to try out a new technology to allow deaf people to communicate with staff and politicians at the Ronald A. Irwin Civic Centre lobby customer service area.
"In accordance with the Integrated Accessibility Standards Regulation, the city is required to provide accessible formats and communication supports, upon request," says Diane Morrell, the city's accessibility coordinator.
Councillors agreed to sign a one-year contract with Canadian Hearing Services to test a Video Remote Interpreting (VRI) service for American Sign Language interpretation.
"The equipment is portable and self-contained and can be used anywhere in the civic centre for either short or long communication support," Morrell said in a report to city council.
"If the trial VRI service has been successfully used by the community, [the city] will follow the procurement and a request for proposals will be issued for future service provision.
"Further consideration will be given to expanding VRI in other customer service areas in the [city]."
The city has allocated $5,000 a year for VRI service.
"Text Net was a service the city provided to communicate with the deaf community for many years; however, the service was not used, and a new service for communication with deaf people is VRI for in-person interactions," Morrell said.
"During COVID-19, many services were paused, and VRI was one of them. VRI service resumed in the spring of 2024."
For readers who were wondering, the American Sign Language gesture used to illustrate this article indicates, "I love you."
Please govern yourselves accordingly.