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 Trust.
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 Trust.
Research establishes that typed telephone conversations take seven times as long as spoken ones.
1985 A widely available and popular textphone, the Minicom, is introduced in the UK.
1989 Text Users Rebate Scheme introduced by BT to lower telephone bills of textphone users.
1992 Typetalk launched enabling telephone conversations between people with textphones and hearing people.
1994 Camden "Telecommunity" videophone interpreting project.
1995 Textphone Emergency Service launched.
Text payphones installed nationally.
1997 TAG hosts Better Use of Networks Conference, funded by BT.
2001 Typetalk uses TextDirect, simplifying connection procedures.
2002 Captioned telephony service
CapTel available in UK on limited basis.
2003 Communications Act passed, strengthening the provisions for deaf telecoms users.
2004 Significan't launches
SignVideo Interpreting services -- quickly followed by services from RNID and BDA
(last two have since closed).
2007 Captioned telephony service
CapTel closes UK operations.
2009 Typetalk renamed
Text Relay and taken over by BT.