Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2006 October 16

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Communication board for deaf

What is the best way for me to allow someone who's deaf to communicate with a hospital staff. The deaf woman does not know any sign language. Would there be some sort of communication boards or electronic device that I could get anywhere that would help her communicate with the staff. --24.253.131.108 00:52, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

Well, um, she could use a pencil and notepad instead of getting an expensive electronic device. She writes what she wants to say on the notepad, and the hospital staff can write their reply underneath. Two-way communication, and it only costs a couple of cents! --Canley 06:24, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

• I am assuming her condition, the reason she is in hospital, does not preclude her from writing and reading. --Canley 06:26, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

Some hospitals are equipped with electronic devices such as Interpretype for communicating with intubated patients who are unable to speak. In this day and age a lot of people might find typing on a keyboard easier than writing with a pencil. The text on a display is usually easier to read too, and no notes carrying confidential doctor's information are left behind. It sounds like a good solution to me (provided the woman you're talking about is able to type).---Sluzzelin 14:19, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

I should have been more clear in my original reply. The woman in question does not know how to read or write. Presumably, therefore, she does not know English, even thou she has lived her entire life in an English-speaking country. So at present, she has absolutely no way to communicate with others at all. --24.253.131.108 15:12, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

Clearly more clear.

• 1st. From which place are you writing?
• 2nd. I guess she can speak at least one other language. Find out which and try to hire someone to interpret her body language. There was one guy who wrote a book (albeit short) with the help of an interpretor only by blinking his eye, so communication still clearly should be possible.

惑乱 分からん 15:23, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

I gather from this that she can speak her native language? One practical solution would be to have someone else nearby who speaks the same language (probably a family member) to translate what she says, along with some pictorial means of prompting her for input. Pediatrics departments often have basic images for communicating with children - such as showing them a series of faces from smiles to tears to indicate pain levels. If someone can sketch a little (such as drawing a body to prompt information about where she might feel pain) then that would help. The minimum information probably regards pain and food. The next level is environmental: point to objects in the room and gesture to ask whether she wants them changed (such as whether she prefers open curtains). You might not be able to accomplish much more, but those things do matter to people who are hospitalized. And remember to move water and tissues within her reach. Nurses everywhere tend to push those things out of the patient's grasp when taking vital signs. Durova 16:10, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

If she has been deaf since birth, and was never taught a sign language, then by now her capacity to learn a language may well be gone. In this case, only minimal communication is possible. StuRat 16:19, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

I should have been more clear when I was trying to be clearer. To our knowledge, she does not have a language of any sort. She may be mildly mentally retarded-- the staff isn't sure. But she needs some way to communicate basic needs to the residential staff-- simply things like "I have a headache", etc. --24.253.131.108 02:12, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

For starters, make up some cards with very basic images on them describing different situations that might arise. Probably the most useful would be "yes" and "no" cards; a checkmark and an X might do the trick, but that depends on her knowledge of such symbols and it also depends on the culture she was born into (and X can often mean "correct" in some languages). A simple image of a character experiencing pain to his head, a character showing obvious signs of being hungry (or probably better, just an image of food or liquid), an image of a toilet, an image of a happy face (are you happy?). If she is not able to communicate using simple images then I don't see anything you can do, you have to communicate in some sort of human way, or else the only way to know that she has a head ache or that she's hungry is to look inside her and find out.

I'm sure that some doctor has set up some sort of system for easy communication with mentally challenged patients that would make it a lot easier than thinking up everything from scratch and risk confusing the patient or misunderstanding them. Anybody know of such a system?  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  10:15, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

This person must have had some way of communicating in the past. It is imperative that you get a qualified person to assess this unique resident--someone who has experience with communicating with illiterate deaf people. Try NAD for assistance. There is plenty of support for deaf people available, and you can't provide the best care without a proper assessment. -THB 00:41, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

What Do You Call The Start Of An Article [But It Is NOT An Introduction]?

What do you call the start of a Wikipedia article, but it does not have the section heading ==Introduction==?100110100 02:32, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

The lead section? --Kusunose 02:51, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

Sometimes spelt "lede" for some reason I have yet to discover... -Fsotrain⁰⁹ 03:10, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

To keep from confusing it with "lead" as in Pb -- a word thrown around a lot in old-style typography.

Heh. I never knew. Thanks. -Fsotrain⁰⁹ 05:35, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

It is explained in News style#Terms and structure. --Kusunose 06:30, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

You could call it many things - preface, precis, preamble, abstract, lead section, prologue... lead section is good, and technically it's also an abstract or precis, since it should contain an overview of the whole article. hell, you could call it "overview", too... Grutness...wha? 06:38, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

I call it "section zero". StuRat 16:11, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

Yep. If you're editing a section, you can manipulate the URL to go to section 0, which is the pre-introduction. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Language&action=edit&section=0 (note the final zero). Hyenaste ^(tell) 18:48, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

Two bit

Where does the phrase "two bit", as in a two-bit thief, come from? I thought it may be from computing (a two-bit computer would be pretty slow and useless), but it seems to predate the modern usage. Laïka 21:08, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

Nope, not bit, but bit (money). From bit (money)#United States: The term persists colloquially in the United States as a holdover from colonial America when Spanish dollars minted in Mexico, Bolivia and other Spanish colonies were the widest circulating coin. Spanish dollars were deemed equivalent in value to a U.S. dollar. To provide smaller denominations, they were cut into eighths, or "bits". Thus, twenty-five cents was dubbed "two bits," ... As an adjective, "two-bit" can be used to describe something cheap or unworthy. For example, a "two-bit hood" is a hoodlum who steals/scams for chump change. Hyenaste ^(tell) 21:13, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

Wow! Thanks for the quick answer. Laïka 21:26, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

FYI, "bits" were also sometimes called "pieces of eight". StuRat 13:16, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

I thought that was the whole Spanish dollar (8 Reales)? -- Arwel (talk) 15:03, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

Apparently it is, according to Spanish real. -- the GREAT Gavini 16:39, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

Or, as they say, In a 32-bit world, you're a two-bit user / You've got your own newsgroup: alt.total-loser. --Maxamegalon2000 02:57, 18 October 2006 (UTC)