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.