Quebec

Pharmaprix drug stores have agreed to make their debit card readers more accessible to handicapped customers, following an agreement with the Quebec Human
Rights Commission.

Pharmaprix, operated by Ontario-based Shoppers Drug Mart Corp., is to ensure all debit card readers at its franchised stores are connected to the cash register
with a cable, the commission said Wednesday.

In January, Montrealer Linda Gauthier, who uses a wheelchair, filed a complaint to the commission, after she couldn’t access the reader at a Pharmaprix
store in the Plateau Mont Royal. To prevent debit information theft, many retailers are attaching their card readers to an immovable metal base which is
inaccessible to customers in wheelchairs.

Quebec associations for the handicapped are challenging retailers’ use of immovable debit-card readers.

They say the practice of attaching bank-card readers to store checkout counters discriminates against certain handicapped customers – such as those in wheelchairs
– who can’t easily reach the counter.