Emik Avakian
Emik Alexander Avakian, the Armenian Stephen Hawking.
4 Remarkable things about Emik Avakian
The Armenian Stephen Hawking
Drive for education in spite of physical debilities
The right man at the right time in history (Space Age)
Big personality with empathy for others
To Emik Alexander Avakian communication was the most important thing in the world and he spent his life brilliantly and laboriously solving problems in the field. He did this under an enormous handicap for his own personal communications were always disrupted. His nerves communicated incorrectly with his muscles.
He worked with the handicap of cerebral palsy. In his case the disorder left him a quadriplegic with strained speech and the inability to use his hands. He was born in Tabriz, Persia in 1923. His family traveled from Persia to Russia, to Germany and finally settled in New York City to find medical assistance for him. As a teenager Emik was fixing many electrical problems around the house. Through great effort and with the help of others, such as typists hired to transcribe his thoughts so he could complete his coursework, he graduated magna cum laude from Eureka College in Illinois with a degree in physics and mathematics. He went on and finished his Master’s Degree at Columbia University.
“Demonstrating a passion for electrical engineering, he became an electronics consultant for IBM and immersed himself in the world of machines and computers. The 1950’s was a decade marked not only by phenomenal advances in science, but by an enormous amount of public interest in scientific and technological progress. This was the Space Age. Avakian’s new position (at IBM) brought new challenges. As an employee at a large company, he would be expected to write out documents and answer the telephone at a moment’s notice, with the use of his hands. For the telephone he developed a hands-free device that used a metal rod to hold the receiver in midair. The typewriter was trickier, but he had an ingenious solution : a breath-operated machine that would convert a signal from four microphones into keystrokes . This was essentially a low-level computer.” (Inclusity August 18, 2018 Emik Avakian (1923-2013) From Adversity to Achievement by William Scott White)
Life Magazine featured him in December 1952 with a story about his invention of the breath-operated typewriter. It was slow but was more accurate and much cheaper than hiring typists. A director of the Cerebral Palsy Foundation hailed it as a great value to the seriously paralyzed or disabled. An article about the typewriter helped him get a job at the Teleregister Corporation where he specialized in communication between men and machines.
“While at Teleregister he helped design a machine which was used by the American Stock Exchange that reported stock quotations with an automated voice. “ (Proud Win for a Man with a Will)
“Some of Avakian’s most ingenious creations were inspired by a fascination with information technology; perhaps the most impressive in hindsight was a machine to store and display millions of microfilm documents on command, much like a modern computer server or search engine.” (Inclusity August 18, 2018)
“When Avakian begins to speak something happens. Behind the forced and gasping utterances flashes the glitter of bright thought, bold imagination and new approaches. His ideas and talents and his eagerness to use them have just won him the Presidents Trophy, given every year to a handicapped American.” (Life Magazine, May 1962 “Man’s Breath Runs Typewriter” President John F. Kennedy presented the award for “most outstanding contribution to the employment of the handicapped.”)
Obviously Emik’s physical condition inspired his inventions such as the cybertype, cyberphone and cybercom all of which helped disabled persons to communicate with more ease; in addition a counter-weighted system that makes it easier to put wheelchairs in cars and a self-propelled robotic wheel for converting manual wheel chairs to automatic followed.
“Needing help from others to assemble his devices, to get around and even to eat Avakian appreciated the importance of interpersonal relationships to his working life. He was remembered as a kind, friendly man who loved to tell jokes, share ideas and complement others in office memos. True to the spirit of his age, Avakian proved that the brain can compensate for the body’s defects through the medium of technology.” (Inclusity August 18, 2018)
Stories about Mr. Avakian’s accomplishments in spite of his handicap prompted many readers to write letters expressing their admiration and concern for themselves and for their children who had Cerebral Palsy who now felt empowered for a better life.