My mother is halfway deaf, and somewhat cranky about it. Although she can manage to hear and understand us over the telephone occasionaally, it requires a lot of repetition, and she usually settles for loudly insisting “Just tell me when you see me in person” or “Send me an e-mail.”
E-mail is indeed one good idea, but it’s not really interactive.
My mom is also a technophobe of sorts, even though she manages to operate a computer, so just signing her up for an internet chat service probably wouldn’t get her to use it. She also doesn’t like cellphones, so I doubt we could get her “texting.”
Is there a telephone-like device she might learn to like that would allow written, real-time communication?
I’ve heard of TDDs (Telephone devices for the deaf)…my impression, formed long ago, was that they required an operator to transcribe text. I don’t even know if they really worked that way then, let alone now. Do automated versions exist? She’s not really deaf, yet, and I feel qualms about abusing any transcription service intended for the profoundly deaf.
I’m guessing there are creative solutions out there that might be helpful. I’ll keep Googling around, but nothing leaped out in my first tries at cold searching, so I’d welcome the opinions/experiences of others.
Thanks in advance!
Sailboat