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Aids For Communicating With Hospitalized People?
charliezcc writes "My grandmother recently fell and broke two vertebrae (among other things) and is in the hospital while she recovers. Thankfully, she was not paralyzed and retains the use of her limbs. However, they have placed her on a respirator and she is virtually unable to communicate with us, so while we try to keep her company during her recovery, our company is reduced to mainly one-sided conversations. Asking her questions, even yes/no questions, is hard because of the neck brace — it turns into a guessing game and very quickly becomes frustrating for both parties. I'm a firm believer in the power of positive mental attitudes and to make her recovery a little better and I'd like to be able to facilitate two-sided conversations with her so she can keep positive. Keeping in mind that she does not have much technology experience, what would you suggest I utilize to ease the communication barrier? I remember seeing devices with a number of buttons that say whatever you program it to say, but I can't find these anymore. What other kind of devices are available?"
Time to go to sleep. When I read the headline I thought, "Yeesh, that's a pretty harsh punishment for commuting with hospitalized people. And why do people in the hospital need to be sharing a car, anyway?"
Why do users with IDs under 100,000 or over 700,000 usually have the most worthwhile comments?
Grandma, two fingers for yes, one finger for no. And so on.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
"She keeps telling me 'no', and always with the same finger"
bomb the us up set someone
>Paper and pencil?
Listen, this is Slashdot. Stop being practical and start thinking like a wannabe nerd.
Don't listen to him, Charliezcc! Here's what you have to do: First get a PDA - not a current one, mind you, but something old and preferably unpopular.
Then, port Linux to it. You'll probably have to write the handwriting recognition software yourself, but no problem, right?
Once done, it will be the ideal device to facilitate two-way conversation between you and your grandmother.
Off you go! Shouldn't take more than a week, I'd say.
Oh, and I wish your grandmother the best and hope that she has a speedy recovery.
Low tech is handled by luddite.org.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.