Aside from the quoted inquiry being from April, I'll take a stab at answering the question in the abstract.

I was DIRECTED by Air Canada to go to a bricks and mortar Travel Agent because AC did not have nor were they willing to provide any means for me to purchase a particular itinerary directly from them other than by calling Air Canada Reservations, which would require me becoming a non-deaf person. They do not provide accessible communications using any contemporary technologies. (They allegedly provide TTY but I cannot verify this as no deaf person I know has used TTY for 10 years.) I hate to have to leave my office and walk through the rain to get to a TA, and then end up with a booking I cannot manipulate using Manage My Bookings, but if I want the trip, that is the only option available to me on my flag carrier.