“Anthony here. At last I am speaking to mum on my own for the first time in my life through this telephone system. Christine and Anthony.”
Those few lines typed on a teleprinter mark the beginning of a whole new world of communication for Anthony and Christine Walton, of Plimmerton, and “mum,” Mrs L. A. Walton, of Kilbirnie.
Anthony and Christine, a young married couple with a baby, are both deaf.
Now, thanks to the efforts of the New Zealand Deaf Communications Network, they are among the first recipients in the Greater Wellington area of a “phonotype” to enable them to communicate with the hearing world.
LinkedThis revolutionary electronic device allows an ordinary telephone to be linked to a teleprinter.
The New Zealand Post Office has given the network 90 obsolete teleprinters to be used with the electronic device, which are American made and cost $184 a unit. A flashing light indicates someone is calling.
The Wellington branch has been installing and servicing some of the machines, and now deaf people in Paraparaumu, Wainuiomata, and the Hutt Valley have phonotypes installed.
Technicians were busy installing the four machines during the weekend, and Mrs Walton will be acting as a “co-ordinator” to take messages from the deaf to their families and friends until a part-time operator can be engaged to do so.
It is also hoped that in the future the network will be able to give Wellington’s deaf children two teleprinters so that they can learn to use them at their day school.
In time, their parents may be able to have phonotypes so the children can communicate with each other at home.
Independent
Until this invention people like Anthony and Christine Walton have had to depend on travelling by car or by walking to make themselves understood to a hearing person.
They have had to make a hearing person understand what they want, for example, a doctor or want to make an appointment or to find out about a member of their family or to tell some news.
Then they have to rely on that hearing person to make the call for them and then transmit the news back to them again. Now these telephones will make them completely independent of all that once network grows.
Miss Margaret Tippett, of Porirua, herself deaf, has undertaken to teach the owners of these machines to type.
As the network grows it is hoped to have an answering service, opening the whole of the telephone book to the deaf, and also such services as dial-the-news.
Today is Mrs Walton’s birthday, and with the installation of her son’s phonotype machine opening up a whole new world of communication between them, she thinks she has now received the perfect birthday present.
Photo: Anthony and Christine Walton of Plimmerton will now be able to use the telephone for the first time. Both deaf, they are the recipients of one of the first four phonotypes to be installed in the Wellington area. This combines a telephone with a teleprinter and messages can be typed to them. Mr Walton’s mother also has a phone so she is able to reply.
