About The Accessible Friends Network.

Who are we and what do we do?

What support can we offer?

What does membership cost & how to make a payments to TAFN

Read our previous Annual Reports

Contact Details

Who are we and what do we do?

The Accessible Friends Network is a user-led U K voluntary group who use email, the internet, voice conferencing & other resources to improve the quality of life for blind & V I people & their partners, by networking.  We provide support, raise funds and organise activities online, and people with v i access technology skills are particularly welcome to meet or join us.  We are now a UK Registered Charity No. 1108043.

Members come from all across the United Kingdom & over 90% of the membership including the committee and volunteers are persons who are registered blind, many have second disabilities as well.  According to UK National figures over 70% of registered blind people are unemployed, and need to use expensive screen reader software such as JAWS Windoweyes or HAL, in order to access the internet.  Yet the internet can bring huge benefits, including to people who are housebound or elderly.

TAFN offers a lot of live support via voice chat over the computer, and most if not all meetings, as well as quizzes & fun events, are held via internet voice chat.  Matters arising are often addressed via our email list, and we've got a dedicated technical support list as well as our general one.

Support

The support we can offer includes:-

• Friendship - Accessible Friends is a small but growing community of friendly people from across the U K who are social & enjoy meeting & talking to others online.  The group offers each member moral support, & tries hard to foster a friendly atmosphere.  We are a team and always endeavour to give new members and guests a warm welcome.  Our invitation is cordial!

• Communication - Several TAFN members also frequent For the People, an american voice chat site, as well as V I P Conduit.  We've also got our own secure VIP COMMUNICATOR chat server (accessible from our homepage), and quite a few of us use other chat programs such as SKYPE and MSN Messenger too.   We love to communicate! so why not get in touch and come along and meet us.  New people are joining TAFN all the time!  

• Entertainment - Several members are musicians and all of us are music and radio fans, and we all enjoy sharing information about music, radio, equipment and all types of audio.  We also provide guides and WebPages on this subject for members & guests entertainment.  In addition, several of our members are keen game players, & we've got our own accessible games page with a TOP 10 chart, members' game reviews, news & advice.  Our website is updated regularly & is open to member submissions, which can be done via email.  It currently includes jokes , an accessible games page , an internet radio guide , an accessible cookery guide called Sue's Kitchen, an online shopping guide and our subscribed members area, includes details of our many games and activities including Bonus Ball, Bingo, Raffles & special online events.

• Technical support -  Wherever access technology is used, technical support is especially needed.  Not all programs (or even websites) are accessible to blind people, and many of the internet's risks including viruses & spam, are all are the more difficult for us to deal with.  To help address this need, among the many skills we share at TAFN is computer technical support.  At least two of our members have skills in computing & access technology & we provide technical help where possible to the group, to try and help us all keep our computers up and running smoothly.   We are currently workin on a new tech support zone for our website and welcome suggested links, as well as any help files suitable for novices.

• Skill share & exchange - Members of the group have various talents and may be able to help each other in various ways. We also may buy, sell and exchange goods or services between eachother as a way of helping one another, encouraging donations to the group where possible.

• Financial Assistance - Through a number of schemes we are directly helping our members in financial need, by assisting them with 1) small grants to help with the cost of computer repairs and upgrades, 2) A special SMA Fund to help members with 50% of the cost of upgrading their screen reader software, and 3) various software discount opportunities.

• Volunteer Opportunities - There are many ways in which Accessible Friends could develop in future, and this will be entirely down to the work of it's Volunteers.  We are flexibly open to the voluntary help of anyone, whether with fund-raising, administration, chat room help, submissions for the website,  giving advice or training to others or committee work.  & Anyone who undertakes volunteer work for TAFN in any form, can rest assured that we always recognise people's hard work and efforts to further the Accessible Friends cause.  Do you have skills you can offer our growing group?  If so please don't hesitate to get in touch!  We currently (as at Feb 08) have around 26 volunteers, and some 161 voip server users!  And less than 10% of them, can see.

• Activities - We are currently in the process of organising new online activities, and once they are all confirmed we'll make more announcements - but we're always looking for musicians & performers, game reviewers, people who are interested in becoming internet DJ's, & anyone with fresh ideas.  Or even people that simply like a good friendly online chat!  Please get in touch and let us know if you're interested.  We still regularly have lots of fun and games, and try to enjoy ourselves & make the TAFN experience a good one for everyone, novices included.  Feel free to give it a trial and come along & meet us - everyone is welcome.  

Our comfortable online lounge, awaits you.

Thank you for visiting our website.  We are very pleased to meet you!  If you would like to get in touch with us, please do so in the first instance via email to info@tafn.org.uk

How to make payments to The Accessible Friends Network

by the TAFN Treasurer

* Bank Transfer into TAFN's account, bank details will be given.

* A cheque direct to TAFN Treasurer Chris Payne made out to TAFN, address will be given.

* You could pay into any branch of  Lloyds TSB Bank.  Details on request.

* We also accept Payments and Donations via Paypal.  

Please be aware that Paypal payments incur a transaction fee to our charity.  However if there are no other means available to yourself, we are willing to accept payment by this method.  Please email me via this link with any payment related queries, especially donations!  

Regards,

Chris Payne
TAFN Treasurer

CONTACT DETAILS.  THE ACCESSIBLE FRIENDS NETWORK COMMITTEE CONSISTS OF:-

Audrey Tonge, Chairperson
Robert Whiteside, Vice Chairman
Chris Payne, Treasurer
Leon Gilbert, Webmaster (& Co-founder)

We also have subcommittees for organising events, member liaison, and other areas of our work.

Telephone 0845 838 2369.

Accessible Friends was first inaugurated in June 2003 & we held our first Annual General Meeting on THURSDAY 11th NOVEMBER 2004.  Any questions about the business of the TAFN group should in the first instance be addressed to the Secretary.  The address of our registered office address is available via email, on request.

Enquiries about and submissions to the website should be sent to The Webmaster.

TAFN members enjoy talking via computer and we regularly meet up with friends around the world, on our Voice Conferencing Server. So why not sign up for a free trial today? It's free, it's friendly so why not come along and meet us.  We'd be glad to help you get your computer set up (if needed) & we hold meetings, host fun events such as quizzes and games, and always offer a friendly & safe voice chat environment.

PS: Our stereo rooms at up to 128kilobit come highly recommended!

Page Access Options

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This page & all pages at www.tafn.org.uk copyright The Accessible Friends Network and it's individual members, 2004-8.  All rights reserved.  To contact the group please Email us:

 UK Registered Charity No. 1108043.