Open Letter on relay services to telecomms Chief Executives
11 May 2012
The UK Council on Deafness, along with Sense and other charities, organisations, MPs and individuals, has written an open letter, published in The Times today, to the chief executives of the major telecommunication providers.
It urges them to engage with deaf people and organisations to establish the next generation of text relay, captioned telephony and video relay services in the UK.
Relay services have made a huge difference in enabling deaf and deafblind people to access the telephone network, but the community has been left behind by advances in technology.
Deaf people should have as good an experience as hearing people when using the telephone network or the internet.
Read the letter below.
Open Letter to the Chief Executives of BT, O2, Vodafone, Three, Talk Talk, KCom, Virgin Media, Everything Everywhere and BSkyB
Dear Sirs,
As we mark Deaf Awareness Week, we are writing to express our frustration at the lack of progress towards the introduction of a telecommunications service which meets the needs of deaf people. Six months ago, the Communications Minister called on you to engage with the deaf community to discuss these needs and establish how the industry could deliver modern relay services including enhanced text relay, captioned telephony and video relay services. You have failed to meet with us in open forum in response to the Minister’s request and your silence has been deeply disappointing.
Deaf people have the right to access telecommunications which are functionally equivalent to those enjoyed by other end-users. For British Sign Language users this can only be achieved through a fully operational and universally available Video Relay Service. Enhanced text based relay services and captioned telephony will provide similar transformational services for deaf people who use spoken and/or written English.
We urge you to engage fully with us and all relevant stakeholders to find a viable solution which delivers functionally equivalent telecommunications for deaf people. Positive action by the industry is long overdue. You are delaying the introduction of modern relay services, and exacerbating the isolation and disadvantage which is faced by deaf people who are denied equal access to telecommunications.
Deaf people are waiting for you to act.
Yours sincerely,
Jim Edwards
Chairman
UK Council on Deafness
and 20 other charities, organisations, MPs and individuals.
Find out more and view full list of signatories on the UK Council on Deafness website.