History
The Royal National Institute for Deaf People was founded as the National Bureau for Promoting the General Welfare of the Deaf in 1911 by Leo Bonn, a deaf merchant banker, at his home 22 Upper Brook Street, Mayfair, on 9 June 1911. The house is marked by a memorial plaque unveiled by The Duke of Edinburgh, Patron to the RNID, on 9 June 1998.
The Bureau was reorganised as the National Institute for the Deaf in 1924. Alongside its role in influencing public policy in favour of people who are hard of hearing in the UK, it also developed a role as a provider of care to deaf and hard of hearing people with additional needs during the late 1920s and early 1930s.
During the 1940s, with the introduction of the National Health Service (NHS) to the UK, it successfully campaigned for the provision of free hearing aids through the new welfare state system. The 1950s and 1960s saw its increasing influence marked by Royal recognition: in 1958 the Duke of Edinburgh became the Patron of the Institute; and in 1961 H.M. the Queen approved the addition of the "Royal" prefix, creating the Royal National Institute for the Deaf (RNID).
The Institute expanded into medical and technological research during the 1960s and 1970s, being a key player in the development of NHS provided behind-the-ear hearing aids. During the 1980s it developed the Telephone Exchange for the Deaf, a pioneering relay service allowing telephone users and deaf "textphone" users to communicate with each other using a third-party operator to relay voice and text communication. This became the service known as Typetalk in 1991, funded by BT but operated on their behalf by RNID until the 7th December 2009 when the RNID stepped down from the service. It is now solely owned, run and managed by BT alone. In March 2009 the name of the Typetalk service was changed to Text Relay.
In 1992 the Institute changed its name to the Royal National Institute for Deaf People but kept the initials RNID.
June 2011 sees the Centenary Celebrations, 100 years of the RNID and a new change of name - Action on Hearing Loss. 'Action on Hearing Loss' was chosen because it better describes the breadth of help and support they provide for people with all types of hearing loss – from people who are profoundly deaf, to people who are losing their hearing. They will be trading under the new name 'Action on Hearing Loss', but like a lot of other charities who have changed their names, they will be keeping the legal name, Royal National Institute for Deaf People. So they now become RNID - Action on Hearing Loss to quote their full title.
Read more about this topic: Action On Hearing Loss
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