Q&A: For deaf Canadians, the country’s high-speed internet standard leaves communication gaps unaddressed

Earlier this month, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) said it won’t raise its standard for high-speed internet, which it defines as 50/10 megabits per second (Mbps) download and upload speed, respectively. ISED told The Wire Report the 50/10 standard is sufficient for Canadian households. But Jeffrey Beatty, chairperson at the Deaf Wireless Canada Consultative Committee (DWCC), says the standard is not accessible for deaf, deafblind, and hard of hearing (DDBHH) Canadians. In an exclusive interview, Beatty spoke about the communication gaps left by 50/10 for people who use American Sign Language (ASL), Quebec Sign Language (LSQ), and Indigenous Sign Languages (ISLs). This interview was conducted through a live interpreter. Why is 50/10 not inclusive for DDBHH individuals? It’s almost 10 years old. It was established before today’s AI, and then there’s telehealth, remote work, cloud services, and routine visual communication demands. The problem is not only age. The problem is that these standards might show a household has connections, but not tell us whether that household is accessible for ASL, LSQ, or ISL video relay services, remote interpreting, telehealth, education, work, or even emergency communications. That means this standard is not tested through the accessibility lens yet. For example, this Zoom meeting is a perfect representation of you and I meeting through video with a live interpreter. For this conversation to work, video has to be clear, stable, and in real time. If the upload speed is weak, then the interpreter will sign with lots of freezing, or maybe I’ll be freezing or pixelated. Or there might be disconnections and we may fall out of sync. Then the communication itself does break down. That’s why the upload speed for users of ASL, LSQ, and ISLs is not just a technical number, it’s whether the visual language can move clearly between each person. What’s the knock-on effect of not having the network capacity to support the technologies DDBHH people rely on? There might be three or four family members in a household. If there are multiple people, maybe three people on video calls, that really maxes out the 10 Mbps minimum upload speed. That does block our communication access. Compare it to a cell phone, that’s never impacted for hearing people. Think about your voice or your throat being impacted. The voice throttle, we don’t have that. But video is impacted because of that network speed. That is a concern of ours right now. Do you think the 50/10 standard achieves the goals of the Telecommunications Act and the Accessibility Act? Real tests of video calls will show clearly that if we’re having a one-on-one conversation, the 50/10 Mbps will be fine. But if there are several people, two, three, or more using that line, then the 50/10 won’t work for ASL. We have so many devices connected in our households. Some people are connected to mobile, you might have another household member using a laptop, someone else might be using the Apple TV. So, family members might have to use their data and budget their speed to make sure ‘oh okay, well I’m on the phone right now, you get off.’ I remember, many years ago, I was watching the speed for if someone else was on the internet and I was trying to make a video call. Now with my fibre 1.5 Gbps, it doesn’t matter. Everyone can be online no matter what and there’s plenty of space to have a clear connection. We should have progressed by now and made the effort to increase those speeds. What is your recommendation for the government to ensure high-speed internet access meets accessibility standards? Canada should move towards accessibility readiness broadband standards. At minimum, the next step should be symmetric services, like 50/50 Mbps, because visual communication depends on upload as well as download. They must be equivalent. For the long-term, Canada should plan for 100/100 as the future readiness standard for AI, telehealth, remote work, education, emergency communication, and accessible visual communication. Has the DWCC made these proposals to ISED? We did. But it’s been a while. It was at the time of the video relay service (VRS) review, I would say three years ago, I believe. I think the time is now. It seems we are looking for them to finally announce what’s next. So, I’m hopeful that they will bring this up to 50/50 Mbps. I believe it is important to support that accessibility and see this as an accessibility issue for communication. I had a meeting with the CRTC on Monday and one person asked what was up with the policy direction. The CRTC said ‘we haven’t heard from ISED about the policy direction.’ So they are planning something soon. I am looking forward to that. ISED should conduct an accessibility lens review of 50/10 Mbps standards and test against ASL, LSQ, and ISLs video communications, all those different things. Plus, this is very important for rural areas. Then, ISED can see, based on the evidence, should it be raised to 50/50? You mentioned before that if Canada can afford to accelerate AI, it makes the 50/10 standard hard to defend. Tell me about that. They put all of this money into AI investment. Billions of dollars. I question that. If they can put all of this into AI, why are we still on 50/10? Canada cannot build an AI and digital future on a broadband standard that still treats upload as secondary. For DDBHH Canadians, upload has language and access that are very important to consider. This interview has been edited for length and clarity mcollins@thewirereport.ca

Q&A: For deaf Canadians, the country’s high-speed internet standard leaves communication gaps unaddressed

Regulatory |
By Maria Collins
|June 12, 2026

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Q&A: For deaf Canadians, the country’s high-speed internet standard leaves communication gaps unaddressed

Regulatory | By Maria Collins |June 12, 2026

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