Visiting the hearing-impaired elderly can be exhausting, especially when every other sentence earns a reply of "whats that?" or confused silence. It can be difficult to communicate during visits since many seniors do not hear as well as they used to, and have a hard time understanding speech. Closed captioning displays the speech to viewers on television, and large-print books make it easier for aged eyes to read printed words.
When I used to visit an elderly friend, I had the idea to bring my laptop along and type instead of just speak. Running notepad with a huge font made our conversations more two-way, with her speaking and reading while I typed responses.
In retirement homes, maybe there could be a communications lab with 'retired' computers running word processing software. Visitors for hearing impaired residents could type and bridge the communication gap . Or, a projector could shine the text on a wall for an even larger display. Before leaving, visitors could save and print out a record of the conversation for granny to read and reread in vacant hours, and review any tricky concepts.
Say (or type) goodbye to the boring, frustrating one-way conversations and broken communications that characterized visits to the elderly! Now grandma has no excuse for not understanding your request when you ask her about the details of her moonshining escapades back in the day!-- squirrelecule, Aug 07 2010 Other technology for the hearing impaired http://www.advanced...aring-impaired.html [squirrelecule, Aug 07 2010] What Happens If You Don't Visit Them http://www.newgroun...om/portal/view/5179 [Grogster, Aug 07 2010] Speech recognition software has come a long way --- I doubt either you or your Granny would really have to type anything. So if that were the sum total of the idea, I'd have to say it was well baked. But there are at least a couple of additional redeeming features in the oven here; 1) that a person could come equipped with his own sub-titles pleases me no end, and G) you are using it in a pretty unique way. Some day I might be in the same boat, with nothing better to do all day than convert oxygen to carbon dioxide and bad breath and tiny bits of oatmeal. I would appreciate it greatly if a young person comes around now and then to share their baked goods.
Bun [+].-- Grogster, Aug 07 2010 random, halfbakery