Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
History of Technology used the Deaf Community (Telephones (By 1902, there…
History of Technology used the Deaf Community
History
In the early 1800s, people with disabilities were often forced to enter institutions and asylums or were used as entertainment in traveling circuses.
People with disabilities were segregated and hidden from daily lives. Some people with disabilities were sterilized to make sure they could not produce more babies with disabilities.
eugenics: the belief that the human population could be improved through having the more superior humans breed, and the inferior, problematic humans removed or sterilized.
In the late 1800s through the early 1900s, the eugenics movement spread rapidly. This type of thinking led to former German Chancellor Adolf Hitler’s visualization of the “pure race” in the 1930s and during World War II
Between 1907 and 1958, 30 U.S. states had eugenic sterilization laws in place.
After witnessing the horrors of Nazi Germany in the late 1930s and 1940s, the overt eugenics movement in the United States was quickly condemned by the public, but not before 70,000 Americans were sterlized without their consent
Architectural Barriers Act of 1968: signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, this law requires that facilities built by the government must be accessible
the Rehabilitation Act: 1973, President Richard Nixon signed into law, This act prohibited federal agencies and agencies receiving federal funding from discriminating against people with disabilities in their hiring practices.
Education for all Handicapped Children Act: 1975, requiring schools to provide an “appropriate education to children with disabilities,” signed into law by President Gerald Ford
Americans with Disabilities Act: 1990, GHW Bush, a wide-ranging civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability, including requiring employers to provide reasonable accommodations to employees with disabilities, and accessibility requirements for public accommodations
Telephones
By 1902, there were over 81,000 pay phones spread across the country, mostly in train stations and drug stores
The first coast-to-coast call was in 1915, when more and more telephone switchboards and networks were set up. The first mobile phone call occurred in 1973
the invention of the telephone was the most formidable, social, and cultural obstacle for the Deaf community
the invention of the telephone was the most formidable, social, and cultural obstacle for the Deaf community
The first in-telephone receiver amplifier that amplified the other end’s voice for the listener was patented in 1964.
Was installed on most payphones by 1970.
There were also portable amplifiers that hard-of-hearing people could carry around and add to the payphone or to phones in the area
The first breakthrough came when Robert Weitbrecht, a deaf scientist, developed the teletypewriter (TTY) in the 1960s
The first statewide relay service was established in 1974 in Connecticut.
Callers type their message on the TTY, and the message is delivered through the telephone line to the other end’s TTY.
The very first TTY machines were extremely large, similar to a dishwasher, however, with an additional a foot or two on top. They were also very heavy and difficult to find and/or purchase, as supplies were limited.
In 1968, there were only 25 TTY machines in the entire United States.
Deaf people weren’t able to call hearing people, and hearing people weren’t able to call Deaf people, unless they had a TTY too
The Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS) was created first as a volunteer program. Hearing people at a specific center would volunteer to receive TTY calls and, using the telephone, deliver the spoken message to the other end, and then type back the information spoken to the Deaf caller.
In 1990, the ADA passed, and a nationwide relay service became available 24/7 in every state and territory
Other Technologies
Auditory accessible technology is mostly rooted in amplification or closed-circuit frequencies to make it easier for hard-of-hearing people to access sound.
Visual-based accessibility technology tends to utilize visual alerts such as a flashing light, text-based communicative devices, or changing color hues.
A tactile version of the doorbell can be seen in old rooms at Gallaudet University. The visitor would pull a knob in the hallway, which made the weight suddenly drop and thump on the floor.
Most alerting systems work with the existing doorbell by attaching a transmitter to the wiring.When the button is pressed, the transmitter sends a signal to a receiver (or several receivers) in the home, which turns on the light repeatedly or sets off the vibrating device
Another creative (but not as popular) way to alert Deaf people is to have the information transmitted to a vibrating wristband that the Deaf person wears.
Some Deaf people train their pets or use service dogs to alert them if someone is at the door.
Using a lamp by your bedside or a vibrating box beneath your mattress (also called a bed shaker) and plugging them into a clock.
There are also miniature traveling alarm clocks, vibrating watches, and vibrating timers.
Captioning
In the 1970s, people who wanted captions for their TV had to purchase an additional box, both of these items were similar in costs, therefore deaf people had to pay double the price for captions
The first show with closed captions occurred in 1972
ABC News offered a captioned version of its newscast in 1973 and was the only captioned news show for approximately the next 10 years
To caption a show was expensive and time-consuming, so many TV shows chose not to incur additional expenses to caption their shows.
The National Captioning Institute (NCI), a nonprofit corporation, was created in 1979 and went to work in developing a mechanism for offline captioning with accurate timing that could be used by TV shows to caption their shows before airing them.
In 1982, NCI invented a way to caption realtime, live broadcasts and announcements where captioners type up to 250 words per minute using a special machine.
the Television Decoder Circuitry Act of 1990: pushed through by NCI and other organizations, this law mandated that all televisions 13 inches or bigger would need to include a caption-decoding microchip
the Telecommunications Act of 1996: required that digital television receivers also include caption technology.
The transition from silent films to talking pictures made movies inaccessable for deaf people
the current interpretation of the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) says that movies are not required to present open captions.
Many companies and businesses have been sued for not providing appropriate and accurate captioning