Teletypewriter (TTY)

Technologies that provide communication assistance to the deaf have continued to develop over time. As with the teletypewriter (TTY), these devices may be designed specifically for the deaf, or as with the fax, they may be used by the deaf even if they were not designed with this intention. The TTY originally resembled a small typewriter that had been enhanced with a standard telephone cradle and receiver. Communication by TTY is available only when both the sending and receiving parties have access to a TTY device. The sender types a message on the keyboard of the device, which then transmits it along a telephone relay system via an operator who dials a telephone number. The operator may also communicate with either party when necessary.

In 1964, Robert Weitbrecht (1920–1983), a deaf physicist employed by Stanford Research Institute, invented an acoustic coupler that was modified for Baudot transmission. His conversion allowed sound to be converted to text and then back to sound. The Baudot code had been invented by Émile Baudot in the 1870s and had been used by both American Telephone and Telegraph and Western Union. The code had recently become available to the deaf community because both companies had converted to a newer coding system. At the time, Weitbrecht was collaborating with James Marsters (1924–2009), a deaf orthodontist, who had asked him to set up a communication system using the Teletype Model 32 ASR (Auto-Send-Receive) so that they could regularly communicate through telephone lines. The pair introduced the coupler in 1964 at the Alexander Graham Bell Association conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. Drawing on the scientific skills of Weitbrecht and the marketing skills of Marsters and Andrew Saks (1917–1989), the Robert H. Weitbrecht Company began marketing TTY modems the following year. Weitbrecht had been born deaf, and the other two had become deaf during infancy in response to illnesses. TTY technologies continued to develop over the following decades, giving rise to an expanding market in [Page 962]assistive devices for the deaf. In 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act mandated telecommunication access for the deaf. Within two years, telecommunication services for the deaf were available in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.