I'm pretty sure there are dice rolling programs with a "speak" function. as he has a labtop that could work quite well. (just hotkey the dice to the keys he knows and the computer will do the rest)

I say eleminate the grid all together, even with pins or whatever i think things will just get too frustrating. and although it's nice to have in dnd 3.5 you really dont need it. (hell i prefer gaming without one.)