Accessibility

Cogeco provides services designed to enhance accessibility to broadcasting and telecommunications services. The following describes services offered to Cogeco customers with accessibility challenges.

Closed Captioning Service

What is closed-captioning?

Closed captioning is text that accompanies the program on the screen. This service is intended for people who have difficulty hearing or distinguishing sounds.

It permits the viewer to see a reduced version of the actor’s dialogue and other significant sounds. For sporting events, the captions contain the commentators’ descriptions.

Several companies provide closed-captioning services to television networks and production companies for their analogue and digital programs.

Accessing closed captioning on Cogeco digital cable terminals

The closed-captioning service is offered on all Cogeco digital receivers. If the channel offers the program you are watching with closed captioning, the note “CC” will appear in the description of the program in the TV listings guide of your Cogeco digital receiver.

Closed captioning can be activated using the CC controls on your TV set.

Accessing Closed Captioning on Your TV

Many TV sets support closed captioning for the hearing impaired with RF and baseband inputs. See the menu options described in the owner’s manual.

Described Video Service

Described video service (DVS) provides people who are visually impaired a voice-over description of a program’s key visual elements with narration that is inserted during natural pauses in program dialogue. DVS generally presents actions that are not reflected in the dialogue, such as the movement of a person in a scene.

If DVS is offered for a program, the video description can be switched on or off.

Most Canadian broadcasters offer a few hours of DVS-enhanced programming per week in their regular programming schedule. Viewers should verify broadcasters’ on-screen promotional information and their websites for a timetable.

How to Activate Descriptive Video Services on Your TV?

Most TVs sold in the last 10 years have SAP/MTS (secondary audio programming/multichannel television sound) features available through the menu options, as described in the owner’s manual. Turn on SAP/MTS, and if DVS is offered in the selected program then descriptive video services will be heard.

How to Access Described Video Services on your Cogeco digital receiver?

Special remotes are available free by request to visually impaired and customers with fine motor skill limitations. These remotes provide backlit buttons that are bigger and easier to see as well as simple activation and deactivation of Described video service. One button activation of Described video service is accessible by selecting the “A” button on the remote and deactivated by pressing the by pressing the “B” button. Available by mail out only. Please call 1-866-261-4447 to order.

The remote manual is available here

Described Video (DV) Guide

As our TV Guide is not fully accessible, we are pleased to offer AMI’s (Accessible Media Inc.) Described Video (DV) Guide as an alternative. The DV Guide was designed in a way to be accessible on the AMI’s website or by calling the DV Guide Call Centre at 1-855-855-1144.

Message Relay Services

Cogeco provides two types of message relay service, 711 and IP Relay, to hearing-impaired individuals. These services are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and are included in all Cogeco home phone service packages at no extra charge. Furthermore, there is no charge for using the Cogeco IP Relay service to place local calls or long distance calls within North America using a computer. Calls placed through the Cogeco message relay services are entirely confidential. Cogeco relay agents are professionally trained and follow a strict code of ethics. No record of conversation content is retained.

Message relay service (711)

Allows hearing-impaired and speech-impaired individuals to communicate by phone with non-impaired people with a relay agent acting as an intermediary.

To use the Cogeco message relay service, dial:

711 to communicate from a teletypewriter to a standard phone;
1-800-855-1155 to communicate from a teletypewriter to another teletypewriter;
1-800-855-0511 for communication from a standard phone to a teletypewriter.

IP Relay service

Allows hearing-impaired and speech-impaired individuals to place and receive text-based relay calls from their personal computer. All you need to use Cogeco IP Relay is a computer with an internet connection and to register an IP Relay account with Cogeco. A Cogeco IP Relay operator will connect an IP Relay caller to a voice party. Simply type your conversation to a Cogeco IP Relay agent, who then reads your typed conversation to the other party. The Cogeco IP Relay agent then types the other party’s spoken words back to the IP Relay user.

To use Cogeco’s IP Relay service from your computer to a standard phone, register and log-in online at http://iprelay.cogeco.com. To communicate from a standard phone to the computer of a Cogeco IP Relay customer, dial 1-855-308-5160. Please note that IP to IP calls are not supported.

For more information about Cogeco’s IP Relay service, please visit IP Relay page.

Contact us

For more information about Cogeco’s services and how to reach us, please refer to the Contact us page. You will find all relevant information to contact Cogeco’s customer care service by phone, e-mail or by post. Furthermore, you will find additional information to help you with any of your Cogeco products or services such as understanding your bill or solving a technical problem under the Support section of the Cogeco’s website

Video Relay Service (VRS)

Video Relay Service (VRS) enables Deaf and Hard of Hearing people to connect with voice telephone users via video over the Internet. VRS calls occur with the help of Video interpreters (VIs) who interpret the conversation back and forth between callers using sign language with the VRS user, and voice with the called party. VRS is accessed from smartphones, tablets, laptops, and computers, and empowers Deaf and Hard of Hearing people to communicate with anyone they choose.

People who live in Canada who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing will need to register for their unique 10-digit phone number that they will use to access VRS from anywhere in Canada with broadband access.

For more information on VRS, please visit: https://srvcanadavrs.ca/en/vrs-faq/

Cogeco Website Accessibility

The information contained in the Residential section of Cogeco’s website - Cogeco.ca - is accessible and complies with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 Simple-A (WCAG 2.0 A) standards set out by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) international organization which aims to make web content accessible to people with disabilities through the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). Furthermore, most features of Cogeco’s website comply with WCAG version 2.0 level Double-A standards (WCAG 2.0 AA).

Cogeco is committed to improving access to the customer service portions of its website in a manner that provides a reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities.