The Agency That Controls the Telephone for Hearing Impaired Has Not Worked Since 1997
The AGN did not find in the last ten years any antecedents about the work of the Commission for Telephone Users with Physical Limitations. The CNC did not assume the function of coordinating this entity and, besides presenting failures in the auditing of public telephones for the hearing impaired, failed to ensure that companies distribute adapted equipment.
Since 1993, telephone companies have been forced by law to provide services to hearing impaired or impaired people, the National Communications Commission (CNC, for its acronym in Spanish) did not create a regulation requiring companies to have a minimum number of public telephones Adapted in their areas of influence. A report by the General Audit Office (AGN, for its acronym in Spanish) indicated that, on the other hand, the CNC did not take on the role of coordinating the Commission for Telephone Users with Physical Limitations (CUTeLFi), an entity that had to monitor the provision from service. In fact, the control body did not find data on the functioning of CUTeLFi or its predecessor, the Commission for Impaired People (CHIH), from 1997 to the year of the report, 2006.
In March 2007, telephone companies reported that there were some 1281 lines available in this country, 93 fewer than those operating, according to their own data, in March 2005. The AGN study stated that "this decrease The objectives of the Regulation "of the service, approved by the CNC in 1996, which understood the provision as a "right to be given at reasonable prices" and with a "preferential treatment" towards users.
In regard to this Regulation, the Chamber of Deputies requested reports on its compliance between 2002 and 2005, "without obtaining any response" by the CNC. For the time being, the report of the Audit pointed out that in 2006 companies did not comply with Article 4 of the Regulation, which required reporting the number of public telephones installed for people with hearing loss.
Likewise, the Commission also presented shortcomings in the control of the existing public telephones for the hearing impaired. In 2005, for example, no equipment was inspected in seven provinces, and in another six, only 19 of the 711 installed telephones, or 2.67%, was checked.
"The right of communication of users with extreme hearing loss is significantly unprotected," says the AGN, because the CNC failed to ensure that companies distribute equipment with alphanumeric keyboard and viewfinder to satisfy the home telephone service, taking into account that "the Companies have common or wireless telephones with volume control, but not with the characteristics indicated," completed the Audit.
According to the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC, for its acronym in Spanish), up to 2003 there were 2,176,123 persons with disabilities in Argentina, representing just over 7% of the total population. Of that number, 520,533 had hearing impairment, and 110,073 had speech impairment.