Known Users


Known Users

6 Rivers National Forest offers info for hearing-impaired



Author: Mike Furniss
Date: July August 1989
Keywords: humboldt disability disabled deaf hearing BBS modem bulletin board system
Text: SMUG member Mike Furniss announced that the Six Rivers National Forest has begun a new information service for hearing-impaired persons. The system is an "electronic bulletin board" and will provide recreational information by phone to those who call with a computer or TDD. The service will operate between 5 p.m. and 8 a.m. weekdays and all weekend. It will operate at 300, 1200 or 2400 baud, ASCII only, full duplex. Only persons who are hearing-impaired are invited to use the system, Furniss said. The system is on a Macintosh SE, using Red Ryder host. "The Mac is used for scientific and clerical tasks during the day, and becomes a BBS at night when it would otherwise have been unused. "I hope to demonstrate that it is quite easy and inexpensive to set up such a system and provide an new communications link to the many hearing-impaired people in our society, using PCs that are idle in the evenings and on weekends. There are many agencies and businesses that could do the same thing, with no hardware expense and modest programming time," Furniss said. "This service gives us a way to provide detailed information to hearing-impaired users of the Six Rivers National Forest. The California Relay Service can also facilitate this, but our system can give more information, more quickly than the Relay Service or direct TDD-to-TDD hookups," Furniss said. "People can browse through the many categories of information available on various topics on the system, or they can post a question on the system if they need some special information. We'll post an answer to their question or send information in the mail to answer these," he said. "This combination suggested to us that an electronic bulletin board service would be valuable and appreciated. "We are hoping it proves to be useful to the hearing-impaired community," Furniss said. Callers who are hearing-impaired may try the system by calling (707)443-6175, with suitable telecommunications equipment. A computer will answer and will ask the caller to establish an account. There is no charge for the service.

Copyright © March, 1989 by Mike Furniss


Return to:
Known Users archive