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still a useful communications tool

Hello Jamie here GA

The idea for this week's feature came to me at a son's birthday party. I was chatting with a parent of one of his deaf classmates. I asked her if they had a TTY, and she replied, "What is a TTY?" They had no idea what a TTY is even though they are parents of a deaf child.

I myself didn't know what a TTY was until the mid-1970s when as a child I saw my first one at the home of a deaf adult. TTYs were still relatively new and tremendously expensive then. Even so, when I saw that huge rolltop-desk-like thing with the yellow paper, I wanted one so I could use the telephone too. We didn't get one and I grew up without being able to use the telephone, until college.

In college, I discovered TTYs again. They were still relatively big, expensive things. More importantly, I had to use and improve my typing skills. Those high school typing classes finally paid off! After about a year of communicating slowly, painfully, and expensively through either human interpreters or difficult-to-get-through-to relay services, my mother went out and bought a TTY for me. My first TTY!

A terminology debate in the deaf community soon began over the correct name to use for TTYs, which were spreading rapidly as cost began coming down and technology improved. Teletypewriter for the deaf (TTY), Telecommunications device for the Deaf (TDD), Text Telephone (a government-inspired term, if I remember correctly) - the debate finally was settled in the early 1990s when a prominent deaf organization - I think it was TDI, announced that it would be TTY.

The future will probably bring more affordable TTYs and new features. TTYs are still relatively costly, and there are some loan and purchase programs around the country, such as the one in California. Although instant messaging has largely replaced the TTY for many deaf people, TTYs are still available and are still a useful communications tool.

Goodbye SKSK