A New Civil Right : Telecommunications Equality for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Americans

When three deaf men in the 1960s invented and sold TTYs, the first teletypewriting devices that allowed deaf people to communicate by telephone, they started a telecommunications revolution for deaf people throughout America. A New Civil Right: Telecommunications Equality for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Americans chronicles the history of this movement, which lagged behind new technical developments decades after the advent of TTYs. In this highly original work, author Karen Peltz Strauss reveals how the paternalism of the hearing-oriented telecommunications industries slowed support for technology for deaf users. A New Civil Right painstakingly details how each advance — such as the pursuit of special customer premises equipment (SCPE) from telephone companies; the Telecommunications Act of 1982 and the Telecommunications Accessibility Enhancement Act of 1988 and the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, which required nationwide relay telephone services for deaf and hard of hearing users — occurred incrementally, first on local and state levels, and later through federal law. "More than 300 years ago a physicist, Guillaume Amontons, stood on a hillside in Meudon, France, and, using a series of windmills, sent a message to Belleville and then to Paris. He received a response by similar signals, letters of the alphabet attached to the windmill vanes, which were read with a telescope. This experiment in "tele" (distance) communications, although successful, failed in its attempt to acquire funding from his government. Ironically, Amontons was a deaf man who proposed a system for long-distance communications access for the hearing world. A New Civil Right is a welcomed summary of the last half century's battles and breakthroughs by deaf and hearing people in the United States for local, state, and federal legislation. Strauss, a telecommunications policy advocate, was part of the revolution which changed our lives. She provides firsthand details of the legislative movement toward telephone and television (captioning) and the access. Shift of telephone companies and others from a charitable or "social services" perspective to one that such access is a civil right to which deaf and hard-of-hearing people are entitled. Strauss covers the gamut of the legal movement toward access--from the initial use of modems with teleprinters of the l960s to the current wireless world. As a hearing person with many deaf friends and contacts, she personally experienced the frustrations of using telecommunications access services--and these experiences provided a motivating force for her own involvement in the battles to implement laws. Chapters on the development and implementation of relay services outline comprehensively one of the greatest triumphs for deaf people in the United States. The chapter titled "In Case of Emergency" is particularly moving. It describes personal experiences of deaf persons with medical emergencies, the lack of visual emergency bulletins on television during earthquakes and other severe weather events around the country, and the involvement of deaf and hearing people in the battle to propel the Federal Communications Commission into action. Several chapters cover the history that led to closed captioning on television, a welcomed documentation for scholars and general readers alike. There is also coverage of hearing aid-compatible telephone technology. "A Wireless World" details how digital wireless technologies required still another battle to assure access. Universal Design as it relates to telecommunications is also examined in depth. The book leads the reader up to current developments in videotelephony and the Internet--and the next battle to be fought. Throughout the book, compelling human interest stories are woven into the discussions of the bouts with the government windmills. The book's one shortcoming is the bibliography, which is unusually sparse. The history is easy to read, although somewhat burdened unavoidably with acronyms and abbreviations, but an appendix provides easy reference to them. Photographs, timelines, and footnotes enrich the reading further. In her Introduction, Strauss summarizes that the book is also a "tribute to all of the tireless advocates who achieved these victories against all odds." This review pays tribute to Strauss as a pioneer who had her own dream for civil rights and helped lead us all on the march to federal laws."--Publisher's website

When three deaf men in the 1960s invented and sold TTYs, the first teletypewriting devices that allowed deaf people to communicate by telephone, they started a telecommunications revolution for deaf people throughout America. A New Civil Right: Telecommunications Equality for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Americans chronicles the history of this movement, which lagged behind new technical developments decades after the advent of TTYs.In this highly original work, Author Karen Peltz Strauss reveals how the paternalism of the hearing-oriented telecommunications industries slowed support for technology for deaf users. Throughout this comprehensive account, she emphasizes the grassroots efforts behind all of the eventual successes. A New Civil Right recounts each advance in turn, such as the pursuit of special customer premises equipment (SCPE) from telephone companies; the Telecommunications Act of 1982 and the Telecommunications Accessibility Enhancement Act of 1988 and the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, which required nationwide relay telephone services for deaf and hard of hearing users.Strauss painstakingly details how all of these advances occurred incrementally, first on local and state levels, and later through federal law. It took exhaustive campaigning to establish 711 for nationwide relay dialing, while universal access to television captioning required diligent legal and legislative work to pass the Decoder Circuitry Act in 1990. The same persistence resulted in the enactment of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which required all off-the-shelf communications equipment, including new wireless technology, to be readily accessible to deaf users.

When three deaf men in the 1960s invented and sold TTYs, the first teletypewriting devices that allowed deaf people to communicate by telephone, they started a telecommunications revolution for deaf people throughout America. A New Civil Telecommunications Equality for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Americans chronicles the history of this movement, which lagged behind new technical developments decades after the advent of TTYs. In this highly original work, Author Karen Peltz Strauss reveals how the paternalism of the hearing-oriented telecommunications industries slowed support for technology for deaf users. Throughout this comprehensive account, she emphasizes the grassroots efforts behind all of the eventual successes. A New Civil Right recounts each advance in turn, such as the pursuit of special customer premises equipment (SCPE) from telephone companies; the Telecommunications Act of 1982 and the Telecommunications Accessibility Enhancement Act of 1988 and the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, which required nationwide relay telephone services for deaf and hard of hearing users. Strauss painstakingly details how all of these advances occurred incrementally, first on local and state levels, and later through federal law. It took exhaustive campaigning to establish 711 for nationwide relay dialing, while universal access to television captioning required diligent legal and legislative work to pass the Decoder Circuitry Act in 1990. The same persistence resulted in the enactment of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which required all off-the-shelf communications equipment, including new wireless technology, to be readily accessible to deaf users. Contents Foreword Acknowledgments Introduction 1. A Movement Is Born 2. The Focus Shifts 3. Entering the Mainstream of Telephone Communications 4. A Federal Relay Interlude 5. Relay Goes National 6. Relay Reality 7. David versus Goliath 8. In Case of an Emergency 9. Captioning Is Launched 10. The Stage Is Set 11. Full and Equal Television Access 12. A Compatible World Becomes Undone 13. The Restoration of Hearing Aid Compatible Telephones 14. A Wireless World 15. A Federal Law for Universal Design 16. The Access Law Takes on Meaning 17. TTYs and Wireless Retrofitting Postscript: A Light at the End of the Tunnel Appendix A Abbreviations Bibliography Index