Re: Communication methods for people with extremely limited articulation

On Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 10:12 AM, Lars Finsen <lars.finsen@...> wrote:
> This would be not a just-for-fun project like so many conlangs. Thus we
> (you) would aim to find widespread international acceptance for the product.
> Other aims should be ease of learning, selecting the most vital concepts for
> the more easily expressible and understandable atoms of communication. You
> with your experience may be in a good place to detect the more vital
> concepts to communicate, perhaps.
International acceptance, I fear, is a tricky thing to aim for. I'd
rather just aim for good design, and let people think what they will.

As for vital concepts - it really depends on the situation.

If this is for long-term use, then it could really be whatever someone
might want to talk about. Think e.g. Stephen Hawking.

If for short-term use, then more typically it's the general sort of
emergency-response health stuff. Communicating parts that are painful;
whether one should be moved and how; what one needs (meds, water,
sugar, warmer, colder, less light, less noise); whom one wants
(partner, relatives, paramedics, specific doctor); whether one is
injured; that sort of thing. (Plus the inverses - e.g. I invariably
*don't* want paramedics, since they're completely useless for my
condition yet expensive and pushy, and people tend to want to call
'em.)

Plus at least some general framework for engaging in dialogue - yes,
no, maybe, wrong question, don't know, etc.

More interesting, though, is the long-term use - communicating
arbitrary phrases and responses in the arbitrary base language with
maximal efficiency, using whatever means of articulation are
available.

This isn't a language so much as an efficient coding system for one,
but still, I'm pretty sure we can do better than 'signal when I say
the right letter'. :-P

I'd take cues from morse code (I know they use a lot of reductions,
but don't know the details) and court stenographers (ditto, but
phonologically based); possibly also systems like T9 if we get to use
a small computer assistant.

First pass, though, should not be dependent on anything more than one
notecard's worth on instructions, and pen & paper for the
dictation-taker.

- Sai

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