The Hall Braille Typewriter, invented in 1892 by Frank Haven Hall, revolutionized Braille writing for blind people. Before its invention, Braille was written with a slate and stylus, a slow and labor-intensive process. Hall’s machine resembled a typewriter and allowed users to emboss Braille dots onto paper more quickly and accurately. It used six keys—one for each Braille dot—and a spacebar. The typewriter also encouraged the production of more Braille documents and greatly improved literacy and access to education for blind and visually impaired people.
The way disabled people communicate—including American Sign Language, braille, image based conversations, and tactile forms for Deaf-blind people—has developed both culturally and technologically over the last 200 years. Communication devices and technologies have often focused on widening access to education as a tool for inclusion. Other times, their importance has relied on their capacity to shape idiosyncratic and unique cultural forms. Today, captioning, voice to text, eye-gaze software and many more, have expanded the ways disabled people can communicate.
Communication in any form enables people to speak up, protest, and advocate. In a world where disabled lives are threatened and their voices often ignored or silenced, being able to communicate becomes an essential right to affirming disabled people’s presence in the world.
