More than a decade after an advocate for the blind won a landmark human rights case against the TTC, a hearing-impaired transit user is calling on the agency to improve its communication with riders who have hearing loss.

Leona Zultek argues that by not devising ways to provide hearing-impaired customers with the same information as other riders, the TTC is failing in its obligation to communicate with all passengers regardless of their abilities.

While the public transit agency does provide high-level information about service changes in written format displayed on screens throughout the transit system, it often relies on audio announcements to alert passengers to unexpected disruptions or short turns on buses and streetcars.

Zultek, 73, is late-deafened, which means she had some hearing when she was younger but later in life suffered sudden and profound hearing loss.

She said not being able to hear TTC announcements can be distressing, especially in cases such as when passengers are ordered off a vehicle because it’s being diverted or taken out of service.

“I’m looking at people, they’re getting up and leaving, I have absolutely no idea why,” she said.

“I don’t know whether it’s an emergency, a medical emergency, whether it’s a technical problem ... It’s completely frustrating.”

Provincial accessibility standards don’t require transit agencies to display all announcements visually. But under the TTC’s accessibility policy, the agency has committed to “communicate with persons with disabilities in a manner that takes into account their disability” and to ensure information is “available in accessible formats to persons of all abilities, across all modes of transit.”

Zultek argues the TTC isn’t living up to its own policy. “It’s just words. There’s no substance,” she said.

According to TTC spokesperson Stuart Green, the agency has multiple ways to communicate with hearing-impaired passengers. A vehicle’s next stop is posted on text displays on streetcars, buses, and newer model subway trains, although not on older subway trains or the Scarborough RT.

Real-time service alerts are communicated on more than 600 display boards at transit stations and stops, as well as online via the agency’s Twitter account and website.

Buses and streetcars have a system to display pre-recorded service alerts in text form. But on all vehicle types, on-board announcements about unexpected changes for are only made in audio.

Green said the agency is implementing a new dispatch system that will eventually allow the TTC to communicate real-time service alerts on buses and streetcars via text display, but the project is not yet complete.

The new subway cars used primarily on Line 1 (Yonge-University-Spadina) are equipped with display screens, but Green said they’re not able to display real-time service alerts because of “technical challenges.”

“We’ve taken some steps but we know there is more that can and should be done in this area. We continue to look at new and existing technologies to ensure the TTC is meeting the needs of our customers,” Green said.

According to the Canadian Hearing Society, roughly five per cent of Canadians have hearing loss and 1 per cent are deaf. The problem is much more common among older citizens, and 65 per cent of people between the ages of 70 and 79 are hard of hearing.

Zultek has expressed her concerns to the TTC, and though she’s yet to lodge a formal complaint she sees a precedent for her case in one launched by lawyer David Lepofsky more than 20 years ago.

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In 2005 Lepofsky won a decade-long battle against the TTC that resulted in the Ontario Human Rights Commission ordering the transit agency to audibly announce all subway stops in order to accommodate blind passengers. He won a similar ruling two years later that applied to buses and streetcars.

Lepofsky, who isn’t involved in Zultek’s case but continues to advocate for accessibility rights, said the TTC should follow a simple rule: “People with hearing loss riding the TTC should be able to have the same access at the same time to the same announcements that everybody else gets.”