TELECOMMUNICATIONS ACTION
GROUP
Registered charity number 1051222
Annual Report for the year to 31 December, 2003
The Telecommunications Action Group (TAG) is constituted by adoption of a Constitution
and registered as Charity No 1051222. Its address is 36 Victoria Street, Wetherby,
Yorkshire LS22 6RE. The charity trustees during the year to 31 December, 2003
were:
Mrs Ruth Myers -- Chair
Mr Geoff Brown -- Vice Chair
Mr R R Trotter -- Secretary
Mr David M Myers -- Treasurer
The Honorary Officers are the Trustees of TAG, they hold office for two years
and are eligible for re-election bi-annually in rotation.
The member organisations of TAG are British Deaf Association, Deaf Broadcasting
Council, Deafblind UK, Deafness Support Network, deafPLUS, Hearing Concern, National
Association of Deafened People, National Deaf Children's Society, Royal Association
in Aid of Deaf People, Royal National Institute for Deaf People, and Sense.
TAG's aim is to ensure that deaf people have access to telephone services and
facilities at equivalent cost and with similar ease to that enjoyed by hearing
people. Links have been established with Oftel/Ofcom, DIEL, PhoneAbility, BT Age
and Disability Action and other bodies. TAG is represented on the Working Group
for the Hearing Impaired, SG16, Radio Frequency Hearing Impaired Committee, the
Consumer Forum on Communications, and is a member of the United Kingdom Council
on Deafness. TAG responds to relevant industry documents and endeavours to attend
as many events as possible to ensure that deaf and hard of hearing people have
a 'visible voice'. TAG monitors European issues through its representative on
PhoneAbility and has contributed to the report of the INCOM (Inclusive Communications)
Committee set up by the EU.
Funding TAG's activities has again proved difficult, as sources of core funding
for umbrella bodies of this type are difficult to find. We are therefore grateful
to Orange that our application to them was successful and has been instrumental
in enabling TAG to maintain its important work. TAG is also grateful to BT for
their continued support.
Consultants play an increasingly important part in ensuring that TAG carries out
its activities by providing help and advice and TAG greatly appreciated the time
they give up to this.
Two issues of our newsletter Sequel, which is distributed to approx 400 opinion
formers and service providers, were produced in 2003. TAG's two fact sheets -
one containing general information and the other on mobile phones - were revised
and updated, and a third listing sources of information was produced in conjunction
with the appearance of an article by the Secretary in the Telecommunications Users'
Association journal. TAG's website at telecomsactiongroup.org.uk has been revised
and improved, and TAG is grateful for the work that the Vice Chair has done on
this.
The main focus of our work in 2003 has been in the lead up to the commencement
of the new regulator, Ofcom, at the end of the year, ensuring that the interests
of deaf and hard of hearing people were considered in the final version of the
Communications Act and are considered in the new organisation and that nothing
was lost in the transfer. TAG has therefore responded to several consultations
and discussion papers during this process and has already established a good relationship
with the new regulator. Contact was also maintained with Oftel during the year
and relevant consultations responded to. Of particular importance was the introduction
of General Condition 15 covering services for disabled users in July 2003, replacing
the existing Regulations issued by DTI in 2000. TAG particularly welcomed that
this extended the requirement to provide access to a relay service to the mobile
network operators for the first time.
TAG has continued to develop contacts with those mobile phone service providers
and has held various meetings with them, including the new operator Three. TAG
welcomed the publication of the Mobile Guide to Good Practice and was represented
in meetings that led up to this and at its launch.
TAG held two extremely successful seminars during 2003, one on interactive services
and the other on DUST (Duplex Universal Speech and Text). The latter was organised
with the co-operation of the Working Group for the Hearing Impaired (WGHI) and
its Chairman, John Barnes. Both were well attended and well received by those
present. A CD of the proceedings of the DUST seminar has been produced.
TAG continues to press for improvements in BT TextDirect and the relay service
for text users, RNID Typetalk. Regular meetings are held with relevant managers
in BT, and TAG has also continued to lobby Oftel and latterly Ofcom on these matters.
TAG was instrumental in BT's setting up a research project on text communication,
and was represented on the project steering group. The research was carried out
in the autumn of 2003 and the results will be available in the spring of 2004.
It is hoped that this will yield data that will allow the development of new services
and the improvement of existing ones.
TAG was also pleased to welcome the introduction of new emergency roadside telephones
which include facilities for text users and for hard of hearing users. TAG contributed
to the user trials of this product.
The Trustees appreciate the help and support given by member organisations and
organisations with which we are in contact.