Rotary Gift for Museum Text Telephone

With support from the Redlands Rotary Club and the Sunrise Rotary Club, people with speech or hearing losses can now telephone the San Bernardino County Museum. The text telephone, or TTY, can be reached by dialing 909-792-1462.

Text telephones look like a typewriter keyboard with a text screen. Communication by TTY is via two-way text; the conversation is read on a lighted display screen and a paper printout. TTY stands for teletypewriter, a technology originally invented in the 1930s as a way for journalists to send stories to their editors over telephone wires as text messages. In the 1960s Robert Weitbrecht, a scientist who was deaf, modified a teletypewriter by adding an acoustic coupler. This allowed people with hearing loss to use the telephone network.

The museum’s new device, an Ultratec Superprint 4425, was selected after recommendations from the California School for the Deaf in Riverside and its purchase was funded by the Redlands Rotary and Sunrise Rotary clubs.

The San Bernardino County Museum is at the California Street exit from Interstate 10 in Redlands. The museum is open Tuesdays through Sundays and holiday Mondays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $6 (adult), $5 (student or senior), and $4 (child aged 5 to 12). Children under five and Museum Association members are admitted free. Parking is free. For more information, visit www.sbcountymuseum.org.

The San Bernardino County Museum is accessible to persons with disabilities. If assistive listening devices or other auxiliary aids are needed in order to participate in museum exhibits or programs, requests should be made through Museum Visitor Services at least three business days prior to your visit. Visitor Services’ telephone number is 909-307-2669 ext. 229 or (TTY) 909-792-1462.