Steering Group
There are currently 14 members on the PhoneAbility Steering Group, all of whom are present in a voluntary capacity. The organisation has no paid staff.
Members of the Steering Group are present as individuals and not as formal representatives of any organisation they may be associated with. This means that any views put forward by PhoneAbility are independent of any other organisation.
Members
Maggie Ellis
Dr John Gill OBE DSc FIET
Dr John Gill has worked for over 38 years in the area of scientific and technological research for people with disabilities. His research includes the design of fonts, public access terminals, tactile communications, orientation systems, automated production of braille and large print, and access to telecommunications systems and services. He has visited 40 countries and written 250 publications.
johngill@btconnect.com
Katie Hanson
Wally Mellors
Fiona Miller
Fiona Miller has been with BT for over 17 years and since 2000 she has been involved in improving the accessibility of today’s communication products to the benefit of older and disabled people. She is passionate about inclusive design and its benefits both for customers and for business. She commissioned the online Inclusive Design Toolkit at http://www.inclusivedesigntoolkit.com and was responsible for the development of BT Sign www.bt.com/btsign, BT's British Sign Language website. Through PhoneAbility, Fiona was the UK telecoms industry representative on the COST 219ter project (2005-2008).
Jim Munro
David Myers
Brian Perrett
Brian is an acknowledged and respected advocate for disabled people. Since 2000 he has worked as an independent consultant for charities that represent the interests of disabled and older people, and for organisations such as BT, Oftel, Cambridgeshire County Council, Cambridge City Council, Cambridgeshire Fire & Rescue Service and the Papworth Trust. Latterly, he has specialised in helping businesses to become confident about disability and to recognise the potential benefits of employing and retaining disabled people. This has included the design and delivery of workshops on a wide range of disability issues.
Prior to 2000, Brian managed BT’s internationally acclaimed Age & Disability Action programme. Within this role he led the development of BT’s acknowledged consultation programme with disabled and older people, setting up and managing the first consumer advisory panel to consist entirely of disabled and older people. As a member of the steering group of PhoneAbility, he was the driving force behind the formation of the UK Telecommunications Industry Forum on Disability and Ageing.
Vivienne Pozo
Vivienne Pozo is a biochemist by training and has spent a number of years working in the NHS. She has maintained close links with the Health Service and is currently an elected governor at a Foundation Trust Hospital in Bath where she lives.
A lifelong user of hearing aids, in 1997 Vivienne joined the Telecommunications Committee at Hearing Concern. Through this organisation and in a variety of fora she has been able to raise issues relating to hearing aid wearers and telecommunications.
Vivienne joined PhoneAbility in 2002. She has contributed to a number of publications including the Mobile Industry Good Practice Guide (Ofcom, 2003) and Barrier Free Call Routing (Employers’ Forum on Disability, 2006). She was co-organiser and presenter at the joint Hearing Concern and PhoneAbility seminar “Is Anyone Answering Now” (2004).
Tony Shipley
adcshipley@aol.com
Jim Slater
A professional engineer and technical author who has written four books and hundreds of technical magazine articles, has for the last 14 years edited and produced Cinema Technology magazine. He worked as a broadcasting engineer for BBC and UK Independent Television, on transmitters, studios, data broadcasting, and a wide range of other topics, later taking responsibility for research projects. He is a consultant to the European Commission, specialising in projects that involve the use of digital technology to assist elderly and disabled people, and was involved in digital TV from its beginnings, working for the European Digital Video Broadcasting Project in Geneva, and the UK Digital Television Group.
jim.slater@slaterelectronics.com
Ross Trotter
Ross Trotter is Chairman of NADP, having previously been Vice Chairman. He was deafened by meningitis at the age of 15. His career was in librarianship, and he joined the British National Bibliography in 1967, which later became part of the British Library. Ross took early retirement in 1999, but continued as Chairman of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals Dewey Decimal Classification Committee until 2007 and maintained close links with colleagues both in the UK and at the Library of Congress in Washington.
Ross' interest in work for deaf people stems from the advances in telecommunications available to text users. He was involved in the first Voice Bureau Trial, which led to the Telephone Exchange for the Deaf and then Typetalk, now called Text Relay. He was Chair of the Typetalk Consumer Panel for nine years. He is also Secretary of TAG and was a member of the Ofcom Advisory Committee on Older and Disabled People until 2008.
Ross' other major interest is Language Service Professionals (Lipspeakers, Speech to Text Reporters). He is a member of the Registration Board of the National Register of Communication Professionals for Deaf People (NRCPD) and is also an Examiner.
Bob Twitchin
Bob Twitchin FBCS CITP is a consultant on Inclusion and Communication working with Future Inclusion futureinclusion.com.
Bob is also Chair of IT Can Help (BCS), www.itcanhelp.org.uk, a nationwide network of volunteers offering free assistance to disabled people with home computer problems. He is also an Associate of the Employers’ Forum on Disability.
On the Ofcom Consumer Panel from 2004 - 2008, Bob led on issues affecting disabled people. He was also Chairman of DIEL, the Oftel Advisory Committee for Disabled and Elderly People from 2000-2004, where he has written and spoken widely on tackling the barriers to communication experienced by people with a range of disabilities.
Bob has recently worked for Ofcom and with the TAG campaign for improved communication services for deaf and hard of hearing people www.tagcomm.org.uk/tagrc.htm