The Deaf Expo began in 1993 at the US Armory in Glendale, California. I attended the first expo there. The annual Deaf Expo has been a staple in the community for over 30 years.
Yesterday, I saw the TTY museum at the exhibition for public education. I took a close look at many devices from the 1940s through recent years. I realized that the CSDR museum has many of the same TTYs, TDDs and smartphones in our care.
See the picture of three key people who made a technical breakthrough for Deaf communication across distance. The deaf oral threesome is Andrew Saks (the wealthy family with the ownership of the Saks Fifth Ave store departments), Dr Robert Weitbrecht (an engineer by training), and Dr James Marsters (a practicing dentist). Mother told me I met Dr Marsters in 1960 at the John Tracy Clinic. Unfortunately, I do not recall meeting him.
By contrast, I vividly remember the playhouse at the JTC. Saks and Marsters had deep pockets that financed the project. Weitbrecht was not as rich but had the brain to make the prototype work for the telecommunication needs. The demonstration of the first TTY-to-TTY communication experiment was successful in 1964.
The proliferation of TTY sales went slow in the late 1960s due to the high cost and the initial resistance of deaf people. They were concerned that once they bought a TTY, who would they call by TTY? In the beginning, most deaf people didn't have one at home.
I saw a TTY “monster” for the first time in the Palomar I dorm in 1973. I made my first TDD call during my senior year at Gallaudet. I was 23. I was very late compared to today’s deaf youths making their first call from their smartphones around 10 of age.
Starting in the early 2000s, we saw a new change in communication technology - a device that was small and light enough to be put in the pocket. The company was Wyntel, which had market control in the deaf community. Later, more companies entered the market with their products not only for the deaf but also for the hearing. With the proliferation of small phones with many features, TTYs and TDDs became extinct like dinosaurs. I used the TDD for the last time around 2005. Fast forward to the 2020s, we have Apple and Samsung as the giants for smartphones available to anybody, deaf or hearing.
In the 1960s, I watched TV cartoons. I remember Dick Tracy and the Jetsons were able to communicate across distance on their wristwatch. The rudimentary technology is already here. It is a matter of time before the Dick Tracy watches become commonplace.
CSDR is fortunate that its museum has divisions of everyday school life including communication devices dating back to the 1940s.
Kevin Struxness, ‘ 80, MA
Editor, CSDR Old Times
12 November 2024
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