Article Summary by Gretchen Von Koenig
Security alarms, alarm clocks, baby monitors and fire alarms are everyday devices in our homes that help us wake up, feel secure and care for our families. In the history of alarm designs that are dominated by auditory-based alerting systems, stories of how alarms were hacked for deaf needs tell a story about how deaf families refuse to be left behind when mainstream products fail them. This essay uncovers one of those episodes: the story of deaf, mid-century inventor Emerson Romero and his company Vibralarm. Romero’s work is a disability history about design for-and-by deaf people and tells a longer history of vibrational alerting systems long before they became mainstream in our current everyday alarm devices: smart phones. The history of his alarm design and his company’s operations speaks to deeper histories about how community can drive technological innovation, challenging conventional understandings of technological development being driven by large institutions or free market capitalism.