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Paul Taylor, the engineer who created the TTY machine for the deaf, has died

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Re: Paul Taylor, the engineer who created the TTY machine for the deaf, has died

#31

Post by app4soft »

Paul Taylor[0] died on January 11, 2021[1]:

> “Remembering Paul Taylor, One of the Early TTY Activists.”

> Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Inc. (TDI) would like to send condolences to the friends and family of Paul Taylor upon learning of his passing.. Paul passed away peacefully at home surrounded by his loving wife, Sally, and their children and grandchildren on January 11. Paul Taylor leaves behind a legacy that TDI values and greatly cherishes.

> Paul Taylor began his TDI journey by forming the first local telecommunications advocacy group in St. Louis and was instrumental in establishing the 3rd relay service in the country which later became Relay Missouri.

> While in St. Louis, Missouri, Paul chaired a committee that created a manual on repairing TTYs titled “Typewriters Made Easy”, better known as the Red Book.

----

P.S. On September 22, 2020 DEAF.Inc shared[2] a video “Show-Me Deaf Spotlight: Paul Taylor”[3]:

> As the Missouri Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (MCDHH) and DEAF Inc. continue celebrating Deaf Awareness Month, we going to put a spotlight on a Deaf Missourian that made one of the greatest impacts on communication equality for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. Watch and learn what Paul Taylor did in the area of telecommunication accessibility.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Taylor_%28engineer%29

[1] https://tdiforaccess.org/paul-taylor-one-of-the-early-tty-ac...

[2] https://twitter.com/DEAF_Inc/status/1308424049102450689

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgDWSTB1P_I

Re: Paul Taylor, the engineer who created the TTY machine for the deaf, has died

#32

Post by mabbo »

disabled wrote: post #23

This engineer inventor changed my great uncle’s life. My great uncle got scarlet fever at age 8 in the 1930s and had a fever of 108 F and nearly died. Because of nerve damage to his ear from the fever, he became completely Deaf at age 11. He learned how to lip read on his own and graduated high school when usually people like him would typically be excluded. Nothing stopped him. He even fished the fertile Pacific Oce…

My grandmother had a similar history- illness leading to deafness that was completed deafness by the time I was born.

The only way to talk to grandma was via the TTY, because she lived a four hour drive away. The phone would ring, we'd pick up and hear beeps. "Mom, it's grandma!". This seemed totally normal to us but in hindsight it must have dramatically changed her life, to be able to call people, to talk to her grandkids. How lonely it must have been before that.

Re: Paul Taylor, the engineer who created the TTY machine for the deaf, has died

#33

Post by egberts »

_nalply wrote: post #17

Teletypes in Switzerland were ITU V.21 with three modifications: - 110 baud instead of 300 baud - not full duplex - carrier tone I experimented with a Java application and FFT to try to write a soft modem, so I still know the exact specification by heart. Bit 1 was 960 Hz, Bit 0 was 1160 Hz, the carrier tone 1060 Hz, and there were 2 stop bits. This means, the teletype could transmit 11 letters a second. The carrier…

Modern TTY users indicate the end of conversation by typing in “GA” at the end denoting Go Ahead.

And end of transmission by ending it with “SKSK” for Stop Keying.

Re: Paul Taylor, the engineer who created the TTY machine for the deaf, has died

#34

Post by nomel »

nomel wrote: post #10

A long time ago, before cell data, when I was learning to program, I may or may not have used the TTY client that came with Visual Basic to abuse the “I’m paying for it with my telephone fees I might as well use it” federal TTY voice relay service [1] to have an operator read my emails and top slashdot news stories to me. [1] https://www.federalrelay.us/tty

It’s interesting how the attitude of the tech world is changing.

Re: Paul Taylor, the engineer who created the TTY machine for the deaf, has died

#35

Post by vermontdevil »

He was instrumental in the development of one of the earliest relay services in the mid-80's in St. Louis. The way it worked back then was more of a community collaboration among many hearing volunteers and the deaf community. The volunteers would work as relay operator, making phone calls for us deaf and relaying the conversation with us through TTYs. Some of the volunteers were my friends' parents which made for awkward moments at times!

But it was very helpful in bridging the gap between the hearing and deaf communities in St Louis and the rest is history.

Lots of respect and admiration for Paul Taylor as a very instrumental trailblazer for the Deaf.

Re: Paul Taylor, the engineer who created the TTY machine for the deaf, has died

#36

Post by hughdbrown »

> “He saw there were old World War II teletype machines not being used,” said his daughter. “Another deaf engineer in California had come up with the way to send signals over phone lines. My dad came up with the coupler component the teletype needed. He then pressed Western Union to provide the old machines to deaf people and Bell telephone to use them on their lines.”

Another TDD pioneer, James Marsters, is described here:

https://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/us/23marsters.html

Re: Paul Taylor, the engineer who created the TTY machine for the deaf, has died

#37

Post by onorton »

hobs wrote: post #15
elil17 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of Deaf and hard of hearing people I know, the young ones (less than 50) all really dislike the term "hearing impaired" because it implies that they are impaired (in the view of many, it's hearing people who are impaired because we don't know how to communicate using sign languages). Many also believe that "Deaf" should be capitalized because of the Deaf community's shared language and culture.

In my experience this is pretty contentious depending on who you talk to in the community, some people don't buy into the deafness as a benefit and its definitely a political issue.

I wonder if there is an equivalent political thing for the blind or for the partially vision impaired. I've only read or heard about these kind of divides (e.g. rejecting fixes for the condition, argument about whether it is an impairment) when it comes to hearing.

Re: Paul Taylor, the engineer who created the TTY machine for the deaf, has died

#38

Post by jfrunyon »

mark-r wrote: post #29
jfrunyon wrote: post #24

TTY has been around since the 1800s. He did not invent the TTY. He invented the TDD.

The article makes that clear, even if the title doesn't.

> As rudimentary as it may seem now — both users needed a machine to type messages back and forth on what was called TTY, Telecommunications Device for the Deaf

"TTY" and "TDD" are not the same thing

> "My father never stopped advocating for TTY"

Again.

> Taylor advocated for a national operator relay system for the deaf to allow them to communicate with people who were not deaf and did not have a TTY machine

Again.

etc. The article does not in fact "make that clear".

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