Radio-Canada and the Olympic Games: A First in LSQ

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The Background

As a Crown corporation and public broadcaster, Radio-Canada plays an essential role in the creation and broadcast of informational, educational and cultural content across the country. Its particular mandate is to make its content accessible to all Canadians, including our fellow Deaf and hard of hearing citizens.

Under the governance of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), which has the obligation to apply the Accessible Canada Act, and following the COVID-19 pandemic that has reinforced the importance of making critical information accessible to everyone, Radio-Canada has committed in recent years to cap tion, to translate into sign language and to ensure the visual description of part of its television content in order to guarantee accessibility for Deaf, hard of hearing and Deaf-Blind people.

The Issue

However, knowledge and best practices in sign language communication remain very poorly documented in Canada.

Since the federal government does not impose obligations on broadcasters, the country is significantly behind in the production of accessible content compared to some European countries where nearly 84% of broadcasters offer, on average, 6% of their content in sign language.

This gap was made all the more evident at the start of the COVID-19 crisis when the Deaf community made numerous complaints and called on the authorities to make critical content accessible to them.

As Quebec Sign Language (LSQ) is a relatively young language, there is little data on the people who use it and the production and distribution of LSQ content, further limiting the ability of broadcasters to adequately create LSQ content.

The Mandate

It is in this context that the Crown corporation is beginning an ambitious project: strengthening the presence of the Deaf francophone community in Canadian media through the development of a relevant LSQ content strategy that is useful for the community and financially viable for the organization.

Radio-Canada thus relied on Eversa’s expertise to undertake a vast research project aimed at collecting information on the needs and preferences of the community in terms of LSQ content. The research also aims to explore the latest technological innovations in accessibility with the goal of proposing concrete solutions.

“[The research carried out by Eversa] is a very important element alongside several other initiatives […] that will certainly have an impact on the direction of our future content strategies,” explains Ruba Al Chaer, Project Manager, Development and Partnership, Office of the Senior Vice-President at Radio-Canada.

The Solution

To ensure the relevance of the data, Eversa relied on a methodical approach. The initial research focused on an in-depth analysis of LSQ in Quebec, in particular its specificities, the number of people who use it and their attributes, as well as the content currently offered in LSQ, including its variety, availability and quality.

Innovative signed content initiatives, both nationally and internationally, were also studied to identify best practices.

The Results

The results of the project are both numerous and significant for Radio-Canada and for the Deaf community. Although this research project is only a first step for the public broadcaster toward the development of an inclusive content strategy, it is already contributing to significant progress for LSQ-accessible content in the country.

For Radio-Canada, the results made it possible to:

Increase knowledge about the Deaf community’s needs and preferences.

Strengthen knowledge about LSQ and its characteristics.

Expand knowledge of technologies and techniques for producing and disseminating accessible content.

Become one of the first French-speaking Canadian broadcasters to broadcast content in LSQ.

Contribute, in the medium term, to increasing the volume of content produced in LSQ.

In order to accelerate the analysis and development of content in LSQ, the data collected through this research is accessible to all organizations, bodies and broadcasters who wish to contribute.

More concretely, they have also enabled Radio-Canada to broadcast the very first opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic and Paralympic Games signed in LSQ during the Tokyo Games in 2021 and Beijing in 2022.

“Since the study was submitted, we have not only broadcast the opening and closing ceremonies of the Tokyo and Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Games, but also federal election night, the Plante-Coderre debate, the municipal election night and La revue culturelle in 2021,” says Al Chaer.

“This is a major step forward for the community as it was able to participate, for the very first time, in this international event. This initiative significantly strengthens the pride and influence of culture and sport in the Deaf community. It also allows us to foresee a more just and equitable future where Deaf and hard of hearing people will be able to actively participate in society by having access to information, sports and culture in their first language,” adds Audrey Beauchamp, Eversa CEO.

“All these experiences allow us to lay the cornerstone of a content strategy that will address the financial, technological, organizational and social challenges facing Radio-Canada and we will not hesitate to call on your services again for the development and implementation of our action plan.” – Ruba Al Chaer

People Involved

Joanie Lavoie
Content Accessibility Lead
Radio-Canada

Ruba Al Chaer
Project Manager, Development and Partnership, Office of the Senior Vice-President
Radio-Canada

Audrey Beauchamp
Executive Director
Eversa

Cynthia Benoit
Founding President
Eversa

Carlisle Robinson
Illustrator-Graphic Designer
Eversa

Sylvain Gélinas
Founder and CEO
Cinéall

Daz Saunders
PhD in Linguistics and Consultant
Université du Québec à Montréal