There is an unmet need for a flexible telecommunications capability for hearing- and speech-impaired individuals Telecommunication Devices for the Deaf (TDD) allows access to the public telephone network for many who would otherwise have no access. However, it has significant limitations: TDD access and domain of service are limited by the scarcity of TDD terminals and service capability is limited to typewritten messages. The TeleGraphics Device (TGD), which was conceived to address TDD's limitations, is a small graphics terminal to be used with any telephone on a standard line, allowing concurrent voice and text/graphics interaction. The crux of TGD development is to have acceptable voice (quality) and graphic (rate) communication within the limited voice bandwidth of the public telephone network in a way that does not require a TGD on both ends for normal telephone use. That is, telephones with TGD must be backward-compatible to telephones without TGD. Feasibility has been indicated by initial calculations and testing, and most of the hardware for a target implementation has been selected. The first phase in this project requires two units to demonstrate feasibility and test directions for implementation. Initial problems to be addressed for these prototype units are to refine the voice/data multiplexing scheme, to develop the write-on display screen, and to couple this user interface with the voice/data multiplexerAwardee's statement of the potential commercial applications of the research:Because TGD would allow simultaneous interactive graphics and voice communications, it should be attractive to a general market as well as to the speech- and hearing-impaired population. This in turn should help to bring impaired users into the mainstreamNational Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NICDC)
