Typewriters and assistive technology for blind and partially sighted people | Science Museum
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Typewriters and assistive technology for blind and partially sighted people
Typewriters and assistive technology for blind and partially sighted people
Published: 28 October 2021
Typewriters are one of the most important and accessible technologies of the 19th century, and they continue to have a huge impact on the way we communicate today.
For those of us used to computers and other digital technology, the typewriter might seem old-fashioned, slow or difficult to use—but it actually has its roots in ground-breaking accessible technology which not only made correspondence faster and easier, but opened up access to education and communication for blind people.
Here, we’ll explore how various types and styles of typewriters developed, and how the origins of typewriters show that accessible technology is good for everyone.
Underwood 1 Typewriter, 1897
This was the first typewriter with a writing area facing the user and type bars that stay out of sight until a key is struck. These features, shared by all subsequent typewriters, made it easy for the typist to see and correct the typing as they worked. This was the first Underwood typewriter and by the early 1900s Underwood had emerged as the premier typewriter design, most recognised today and most imitated at the time.
Science Museum Group Collection
More information<br>about Underwood Typewriter, 1897
The origins and inventors of the typewriter
We don’t know exactly when or who invented the first typewriter, but it’s thought that the initial concept emerged in 1714 with a patent written by British engineer Henry Mill for a “Machine for Transcribing Letters”. Only a vaguely worded description of this machine remains and there is no evidence to suggest that Mill, busy with his work as engineer-in-chief of the New River Water Works, went beyond the patent application stage.
...an artificial machine or method for the impressing or transcribing of letters singly or progressively one after another, as in writing, whereby all writings whatsoever may be engrossed in paper or parchment so neat and exact as not to be distinguished from print.
Henry Mill , British patent for “Impressing Writing on Parchment &c." (1714)
The next (controversial) contender for the title of first inventor of the typewriter was Italian Pellegrino Turri (1808), who allegedly built a device for his blind lover Countess Fantoni da Fivizzano in order for them to communicate. No drawings of this machine have survived, but in the state archives of Reggio Emilia in Italy there are letters which were written on the device by the Countess.
Although the evidence around this device is sparse and sometimes conflicting, it’s notable that a device which may be considered the first typewriter was actually designed for a blind person to communicate with.
Opportunities for blind and partially sighted people would have been limited in the early 1800s, when tools for communication and education were mostly available to the wealthy, who could afford personalised technology or private tutors. However, it was around this time when attitudes began to change—in line with Enlightenment values of improved and increased access to education. Various schools began to spring up throughout Europe, America and other places, where blind and Deaf people were taught to engage in established or traditional ways of learning such as reading, writing and speaking, so they could communicate more easily with hearing people. Early assistive technologies were important to these efforts.
Victorian...