David Lepofsky has been trying to use his personal video recorder (PVR) at home, by himself, since 2019.
It doesn’t have screen readers that would allow Lepofsky, who is blind, to use it independently. He complained to his cable provider. The company acknowledged the problem but did not say when it would be fixed.
So Lepofsky, chairperson of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance, a disability consumer advocacy group, filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission in 2021. This summer, the commission told him it will not hear his complaint.
The ordeal has lasted longer than the run of some television shows. And if Lepofsky takes his complaint to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, it will take even longer.
And meanwhile, he still can’t use his PVR independently.
Lepofsky says it’s a good example of how Canadians with disabilities are left to fight barriers on their own, despite laws and regulations that are supposed to remove the barriers.
