TAG

Promoting access to electronic communications for deaf people

About TAG

Mission Statement
History
What TAG does
Members
Landmarks in deaf telecoms

Mission Statement

TAG promotes equality of access to electronic communications, including telecommunications and broadcasting, for deaf, deafened, hard-of-hearing, deafblind people and sign language users, especially in terms of function and cost.
As a consortium of the full range of national organisations working on behalf of deaf people, TAG researches, debates, and disseminates authoritative information about deaf people's access to electronic communications.
TAG liaises with government, regulatory, and relevant commercial and non-governmental organisations and lobbies on behalf of its constituent organisations to advocate equality of access to electronic communications equipment, services and facilities.

History

The Telecommunications Action Group (TAG) was established in 1986 as a consortium of national organisations for and of deaf people to speak with one voice in discussions with the telecoms industry.
TAG has assisted in campaigns for telecoms rebates for deaf people, and for Typetalk, the national relay service which enables deaf and hearing people to talk to each other.
With the passing of the Communications Act in 2003 TAG decided to broaden its remit to include all electronic communications including broadcasting. As the acronym TAG was well established it was decided to retain it and TAG was registered with the Charity Commission as the formal name of the organisation and does not now stand for anything. All the major national and regional UK deaf organisations with an interest in electronic communications are members of TAG and there are also a number of members co-opted for their expertise in specific areas such as mobile telephony, videophones or regulatory affairs. TAG meets quarterly. TAG is represented on the United Kingdom Council on Deafness and on PhoneAbility.

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What TAG does

Brings together national and regional organisations concerned with electronic communications for deaf people to discuss and reach a consensus viewpoint to put to Government, Ofcom, broadcasters, telecoms companies, local authorities and other relevant parties
Provides advice to service providers, equipment manufacturers and organisations.
Ensures that deaf people can and do have the means to make full use of the electronic communications network.
Encourages compatibility of telephone services for deaf people in the UK and worldwide.

Members

◊ British Deaf Association (Sign Community)	◊ National Deaf Children's Society
◊ Deafness Support Network	◊ Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID)
◊ DeafPLUS	◊ Sense
◊ Hearing Concern LINK
◊ National Association of Deafened People (NADP)	◊ = hot link to member's website

1973	First telephone call in UK between deaf people using old telex machines.
1980	Prototype relay service for deaf people (TED) started by RNID.
1981	The UK's first textphone, Vistel - the visual telephone - introduced by Breakthrough Deaf-Hearing Integration . Public telephones begin to be adapted for use by hearing aid users
1982	First electronic mail network established amongst deaf people in the UK by Breakthrough Deaf-Hearing Integration. Research establishes that typed telephone conversations take seven times as long as spoken ones
1985	A widely available and popular textphone introduced in the UK
1989	Text Users Rebate Scheme introduced by BT to lower telephone bills of textphone users. Administered by RNID
1992	Typetalk launched enabling telephone conversations between people with textphones and hearing people
1995	Textphone Emergency Service laubched. Text payphones installed nationally. TAG Better Use of Networks project starts, funded by BT
1997	TAG Better Use of Networks Conference
1998	TAG publishes the TAG Directory and Proceedings of the Better Use of Networks Conference
1999	TAG's newsletter, Sequel, launched
2001	Typetalk changes over to TextDirect, simplifying connection procedure
2003	Communications Act passed, strengthening the provisions for deaf telecoms users
2009	Typetalk renamed Text Relay and taken over by BT