Projektart: Eigenprojekt
TeSS T-Sign&Script-Relay-Dienste für hörgeschädigte Menschen

The Tess relay services were set up as part of a joint project between the Deutsche Gesellschaft der Hörgeschädigten - Selbsthilfe und Fachverbände e.V. (German Society of the Hearing Impaired - Self-Help and Professional Associations) and Deutsche Telekom AG. The aim of the project was to enable hearing-impaired people to make barrier-free and independent telephone calls - by setting up and operating a telephone switching service (relay service) for hearing-impaired people - and to ensure that the relay service continues after the end of the project. The Tess project began on January 1, 2005 and was successfully completed on December 31, 2008.2005 and was successfully terminated on 31.12.2008. With support from the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, Tess became a regular service accessible to all hearing-impaired people in Germany on 01.01.2009. Deaf people throughout Germany can choose between the following services: The video relay service T-Sign offers deaf people or people with hearing loss bordering on deafness with appropriate sign language skills a relay service in German sign language. Using a computer and webcam, T-Sign provides access to a sign language interpreter who calls the desired hearing interlocutor and translates the content of the conversation from sign language into spoken language or vice versa. The text relay service T-Script offers written mediation for people who are hard of hearing or deaf. By means of a text telephone or PC, T-Script reaches a written relay person who calls the desired hearing interlocutor and translates the contents of the conversation from written language to spoken language or vice versa. People with normal hearing can call both relay services to establish contact with hearing-impaired people.