Author: Nour EL Mansari

My partner is a deaf Chinese male who also suffers from a left-side-slight paralysis. Indeed, he has troubles using his left hand and has a balance problem which is bettered by special shoes. He knows how to read and write in pinyin and in characters; although he sometimes has troubles with complicated characters. His vocabulary is also very simple and basic. But he can still communicate with his limited vocabulary. He prefers to communicate through his mother though (with sign language).
He loves his computer so much and enjoys using it to watch movies, tv shows and video games. He knows how to use the computer well and he also knows how to navigate a dictionary (which he uses to look up characters he doesn’t get).
We thought of getting him a drawing pad which he can use to write down what he wants to say to people since he can’t talk and most people can’t sign. Since he has troubles with his left hand, to make using the pad easy, we thought of sticking it to a belt around his waist so that he doesn’t have to pull it out every time (and doesn’t have to use his left hand). We wanted to attach to the tablet a recorder in which we record in Chinese “I am deaf please write down what you want to tell me” for when he wants to let people know of his deafness when speaking to them.
Unfortunately, he’d much rather communicate through his mom and he is not very open to any other technology that can help him communicate with others. He is more comfortable with his mom doing everything for him.
We then switched our focus from his deafness to his left hand. Since he enjoys playing games in his computer, we thought about making the experience easier for him. Sometimes, in computer games you need to use the arrows and the AWDS keynotes; which is a thing he cannot do because of his inability to use his left hand while playing. We thus thought of creating a foot keyboard where he can use his right foot to control. We put together pads that by clicking at them with his foot can enable him to control the left side of the keyboard he can’t access while using his right hand to play with the right side of the keyboard.
It was really difficult to communicate with him and figure what he needed or liked. I guess I learned how important it is to try to understand people and communicate their needs and wants. You can’t offer help if it is not welcomed or needed and you should always check first if the person you’re helping wants that help or not. It was an all in all great experience even though we encountered a lot of difficulties along the way be it the communication or his simply dislike of what we were making.

My partner is a deaf Chinese male who also suffers from a left-side-slight paralysis. Indeed, he has troubles using his left hand and has a balance problem which is bettered by special shoes. He knows how to read and write in pinyin and in characters; although he sometimes has troubles with complicated characters. His vocabulary is also very simple and basic. But he can still communicate with his limited vocabulary. He prefers to communicate through his mother though (with sign language).
He loves his computer so much and enjoys using it to watch movies, tv shows and video games. He knows how to use the computer well and he also knows how to navigate a dictionary (which he uses to look up characters he doesn’t get).
We thought of getting him a drawing pad which he can use to write down what he wants to say to people since he can’t talk and most people can’t sign. Since he has troubles with his left hand, to make using the pad easy, we thought of sticking it to a belt around his waist so that he doesn’t have to pull it out every time (and doesn’t have to use his left hand). We wanted to attach to the tablet a recorder in which we record in Chinese “I am deaf please write down what you want to tell me” for when he wants to let people know of his deafness when speaking to them.
Unfortunately, he’d much rather communicate through his mom and he is not very open to any other technology that can help him communicate with others. He is more comfortable with his mom doing everything for him.
We then switched our focus from his deafness to his left hand. Since he enjoys playing games in his computer, we thought about making the experience easier for him. Sometimes, in computer games you need to use the arrows and the AWDS keynotes; which is a thing he cannot do because of his inability to use his left hand while playing. We thus thought of creating a foot keyboard where he can use his right foot to control. We put together pads that by clicking at them with his foot can enable him to control the left side of the keyboard he can’t access while using his right hand to play with the right side of the keyboard.

I went to a special vocational school where we got to see kids learning how to cook, bake and prepare food. They were also playing all kinds of sports and learning how to make and serve coffee to people. In this school, teachers were really invested in the way they taught their kids as they often meet up to come up with new ideas and ways to teach the students. There are also many activities the students may partake in as in pottery and paintings for example. 

I think incorporating more technology into their daily lives might be helpful to them for example teaching them how to use the computer, cellphones, how wechat and alipay works … etc. They can also have maybe easy video games to play and movies they watch to immerse themselves in today’s world.

My partner is a deaf Chinese male who also suffers from a left-side-slight paralysis. Indeed, he has troubles using his left hand and has a balance problem which is bettered by special shoes. He knows how to read and write in pinyin and in characters; although he sometimes has troubles with complicated characters. His vocabulary is also very simple and basic. But he can still communicate with his limited vocabulary.
He loves his computer so much and enjoys using it to watch movies, tv shows and video games. He knows how to use the computer well and he also knows how to navigate a dictionary (which he uses to look up characters he doesn’t get).
We thought of getting him a drawing pad which he can use to write down what he wants to say to people since he can’t talk and most people can’t sign. Since he has troubles with his left hand, to make using the pad easy, we thought of sticking it to a belt around his waist so that he doesn’t have to pull it out every time (and doesn’t have to use his left hand). We wanted to attach to the tablet a recorder in which we record in Chinese “I am deaf please write down what you want to tell me” for when he wants to let people know of his deafness when speaking to them.
Unfortunately, he’d much rather communicate through his mom and he is not very open to any other technology that can help him communicate with others. He is more comfortable with his mom doing everything for him. We have been trying to find something else that might help him but we still haven’t come up with anything as the only thing he enjoys is the computer (which he knows how to use except when it glitches; which is something we can’t control). We’ve been collecting lists of his games and pictures of him using his computer. But nothing has come out of that yet.

Our “client” is a deaf Chinese man who also, due to a brain injury, has troubles using his left arm. He knows how to write and speak Chinese (both characters and pinyin), even though he sometimes cannot recognize hard characters. He enjoys using his computer to play video games and watch tv shows. He also is someone who uses the dictionary a lot to look up words he does not understand and knows how to navigate internet very well.

He went to a special school in which he learned how to sign and developed his education.

Because my team and I had trouble communicating with him, we thought we could make that process easier. We are thus using a drawing tablet for him to be able to write down to people what he wants to say. In addition to that, we are sticking a voice recorder to the tablet so that when in need, he can touch a button and that recorder notifies people that he is deaf and that they need to write down what they want to say for him to understand. Because he has trouble using his left side, we are thinking of attaching the tablet-recorder to a belt around his waist. We still are looking for a way to make the tablet move just like the tables in the airplanes (because his writing will be facing him and not the public it might be hard for others to understand what he’s writing).