Paul Taylor, RIP
Tom Hallman Jr. (via Hacker News):
“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.”
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 — it was as innovative when it launched in the 1960s as text messaging was when smart phones entered our lives.
[…]
In addition to teaching, 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.
