Note: I'm hearing, and I've only been studying sign language and deaf history & culture for about nine months, so I definitely don't know everything. If anything I say is misleading or incorrect, please tell me! I don't mean to and I apologise if I cause any offense as that's very much not my intention
The basics of the plot is the same, but I have some ideas about Grace and how he interacts with Rocky:
He still teaches science, just at a Deaf middle school
When he meets Rocky, Rocky can understand him perfectly fine, but Grace can't hear any of Rocky's music
The equivalent of Deafness is present in Eridians, so luckily it isn't too hard for Grace to get Rocky to understand that he can't hear him
Eridians created something similar to Morse code to communicate, where other Eridians will rhythmically tap on the deaf Eridian's carapace and different lengths, pressures, and locations of the touch mean different things
Grace talks mostly in ASL, which Rocky picks up on fast, even faster than he did on English because many American signs are iconic and the grammar is similar to Eridian (at least, relatively to English). However, he does create several new signs that are usually fingerspelled because Rocky didn't know English spelling
At first, Grace uses the computer as normal. Once he has enough words recorded, he creates a wearable device that has the translation program so he doesn't have to haul around the laptop. Once he learns that the octaves mean different feelings, he edits the program so a note appears if Rocky is speaking in a different octave than usual. When they're not in zero g, Grace starts to pick up on some of the vibrations Rocky makes when he talks
After a short while, he creates another system (with the help of Rocky) that connects him to Rocky no matter the gravity levels, that transfers the vibrations clearly so he can understand tones and octaves faster and clearer. The vibrations can only communicate so much, though, so it can't entirely be used on its own
Even though they can communicate comfortably most of the time, together they work to create a combination of Morse code and Eridian code
When doing EVA's, Grace talks to Rocky using the tap code because the suit's fingers don't allow him to sign well. He edits the program to display what Rocky's saying on the helmet of the EVA
When Grace's hands are otherwise busy, he'll talk in the tap code using his feet
He'll also talk in the tap code when he's extremely tired or injured and wants to say something simple
A few times, both of them talk in tap code just to have a moment where they're actually speaking the same language
Many times Rocky gets confused by the noises Grace doesn't realise he's making
There are also times when Rocky has to ask Grace to mute alarms, because Grace couldn't hear that they were blaring
When Grace's arm is injured, his device is destroyed. He gets even more stressed and overwhelmed because it's so incredibly painful and difficult to just try and get a point across
Rocky learns some signs he can form with the fingers and hands he has. He doesn't need to, but he likes that it makes Grace happy, and he actually gets pretty good at it (as much as you can with three fingers per hand)
