DAART Campaign is a campaigning group of individual consumers who may or may not have any representation with deaf or hard of hearing organisations and would like to add their voice to see alternative relay services available here in the UK.
DAART Campaign believes that the development of a Telecommunications Relay Fund (TRF) is the best outcome and believes a format where 0.5% of telecommunications revenues are used to support the fund. This will allow any potential relay companies to competitively tender to provide quality services.
DAART believe that this source of funding has many advantages, and would allow a range of equivalent services to be developed and provided 7/52/365, that meet the varying communication needs of deaf people, whether deaf with speech, BSL users, hard of hearing, deaf-blind or deafened. We believe this will create functional equivalent access in the full range of communication activities currently enjoyed by non-disabled users: at work, at home, on the road, communicating with families and loved ones, communicating for work purposes, as well as the more mundane and practical uses for telecommunications.
DAART believes that the advantages of having an independent telecommunications relay fund are:
- Funds become available on a yearly basis for companies who wish to provide specialist relay services to be able to tender bids
- There would be healthy competition among service providers to demonstrate quality of service, value for money, and who use the latest improved technology to be more effective and efficient to secure tenders
- Removes the burden from Government to fund services through various departments
- There will be a variety of relay services available catering for the diverse range of disabled people to ensure they receive functionally equivalent access
- It does not place the burden on one company that has the SMP
DAART is also open to other suggestions of how alternative relay services can be funded if they meet the following conditions:
- The funding pool is sustainable on a yearly basis on a permanent basis
- The services are not subject to the yo-yo effect of yearly- repeated annual contracts. These should be a minimum of 3 – 5 year contracts
- The services are available to all users and are not restricted to certain users and at certain times
- The services are available 24/7/365
- The services are not subjected to reduced funding, stifling innovation and taking advantage of new developments in technology
- That Captioned Telephony Relay Services “CTRS”, Video Relay Services “VRS” and other types of alternative relay services are treated with equal importance to ensure that all sections of the Deaf, deaf, hard of hearing, deafened, and deaf blind community benefit from functional equivalent access to telecommunications
- To enable full participation of all deaf users, they must have appropriate terminal equipment to access different types of relay services
- Once the new relay services are in operation, the cost of calls will be functionally equivalent to hearing callers. If there are free calls, then the relayed call from that user will be free regardless who made the call in the first instance – deaf or hearing
The DAART Campaign will encourage Ofcom and Government not to seek funding solutions that will provide relay services, which does not meet the conditions mentioned.
DAART Campaign – November 2010
