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From: asuvax!mothra!bakerj@ncar.ucar.edu (Jon Baker)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Whatever Happened to the Telephone Pioneers?
Message-ID: <13798@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 19 Oct 90 20:13:13 GMT
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In article <13612@accuvax.nwu.edu>, haynes@ucscc.ucsc.edu (99700000)
writes:

> I got to wondering what happened to the Telephone Pioneers
> organization after the great Bell System breakup.

> [Moderator's Note: They are still around in the local operating
    .....
> them lately however. They used to do a lot of very good work with
> handicapped people here; building special telephones for them, etc. If
> anyone reading this is a member, how about an update from your chapter
> of the Pioneers?  PAT]

Couldn't claim to be a member (and doubt I ever will be, since those
working for 'them' don't seem to be eligible), but I do know that The
'Pioneers build a park right near work here, in Phoenix, specifically
for the handicapped.  Of course, it has full wheel-chair access ramps
all over, including special ramps and safety-bars going down into a
swimming pool, and numerous other recreational facilities.  It has
received a small degree of recognition in the press.  I don't know why
all public parks don't have such facilities.  It's not like it would
useless to non-handicapped people.


JB

[Moderator's Note: You say you could 'never be a member since those
working for them are not eligible', but I think the rule is you have
to be employed by a telco for twenty years to be eligible. At least
under the old consolidated Bell System, twenty years continuous
employment was the required minimum for Illinois Bell people. The
various chapters have always been very dedicated and mindful of the
needs of handicapped people, particularly regarding use of the
telephone by those people. The Telephone Pioneers has a long, very
glorious history, dating back to the beginning years of AT&T. And of
course, as most of you know, Alex Bell was a teacher of deaf students,
and was himself increasingly deaf in his old age. During her lifetime,
his wife Mabel also devoted herself to serving handicapped people.  PAT]