9411871 Lang This research project will result in a documented analysis of the history of telecommunication and the Deaf community, with particular emphasis on the invention of the telephone coupler. This invention has had significant impact on the quality of living conditions for deaf and hard-of-hearing people. Developed nearly a century after Alexander Graham Bell's invention, this form of technology expanded employment opportunities and developed independence for deaf members of society. One of the objectives of the study is to describe the historical struggle of deaf and hard of hearing people to gain access to the telephone, culminating in the development of the acoustic coupler in the 1960s and the subsequent collaboration in the 1970s of organizations serving deaf people and major telephone corporations to bring the technology into the homes and businesses of deaf people. The research involves an exhaustive review of archival records and extensive correspondence and inquiry among those who pioneered the development and spread of use of the telephone-teletypewriter units which preceded the more recent electronic devices. Information will also be collected from major telecommunications corporations that played important roles, especially Western Union and American Telephone and Telegraph companies. Results will be published in a manner of interest to historians of science, the Deaf community, and general readers who wish to learn about the positive applications of science and technology to enhancing people's lives. ***
