This proposal addresses the problem of telephone communications by the deaf and deaf-blind. The current state-of-the-art allows these persons to communicate on the telephone with others when both are using specialized equipment. Our concept would require specialized equipment by the hearing-impaired person only. Our process is based on a commercial microcomputer converting tone or pulse signals into ASCII combinations. This ASCII code could then be converted to screen output or interfaced with a braille-output device (for the deaf-blind). A speech-output device could also be incorporated for speech-impaired persons. The ASCII conversion process (which this proposal addresses) would be inexpensive to produce once developed. Since the user would frequently be interacting with non-deaf persons, our system would be geared towards ease of use by the person without the specialized equipment.
