In article , Mike Coslo writes:

Kim W5TIT wrote:

Absolutely. To come to the conclusion that deaf people cannot learn and use
CW is rather narrow-minded in my opnion. I bet there's a way that ANYONE
could learn CW.

It helps if a person types in all caps too! ;^)

For goodness sake! By your example, Keith, blind people should not be
licensed because, "how in the world would they know what frequency they are
on?"

Now that you mention it, how does a fully blind ham tell what frequency

he or she is on? I suppose that using the memory channels on an HF rig
would be one method, but does anyone here know?

There are many aids for the hearing disabled as well as sight disabled
out there. Few know about them because there isn't a mass market for
them.

There were at least two "speaking meters" on the market, one of which
was used by a ham heard on a 20m net some years ago. In that case
he put the microphone in front of the meter's transducer to indicate the
carrier frequency (which resulted in an on-air argument amongst the
net as to which one of them was "most accurate" in frequency, sighted
or sightless...heh heh). There are "talking wrist watches" on the market
now, at least three models that I've seen...heard one used by a patient
at a nursing home who also had a bedside radio with some "talking"
features built into its controls.

The "TDD" is quite a common appliance for hearing disabled to use as
a telephone. A perusal of telephone book listings will show the "TDD"
(Telecommunications Device for the Deaf) numbers at stores so
equipped...and some urban services which have operator translators
with a TDD and conventional telephone to "interpret" for deaf folks.
I know a lady who did about two years at that task as a volunteer.

A diligent search will turn up a surprising number of devices and
appliances that are available for sight or hearing disables people.

LHA