On Friday, April 21, 2017 at 11:04:30 AM UTC-4, john lunzer wrote: > > Out of curiosity, and you can tell me to buzz off (I won't be offended, > because I know I will have offended you), what is your disability and to > what extent are you able to individually use your hands, feet, and eyes? >
It really takes a lot to offend me and I have no problems telling people (politely) when they have offended me. You have nothing to worry about. > > I ask because I don't have any physical disabilities but I still think the > human/computer interface can always be improved. Personally I bind myself > to windows for one reason only, Autohotkey. It is without doubt the best > tools available for keyboard customization. > > Some thoughts. I had never heard of these but roller mice > <https://www.amazon.com/Contour-RollerMouse-Red-Ergonomic-mouse-central-device-wired-USB/dp/B00DE83RSC/ref=pd_sim_147_3?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00DE83RSC&pd_rd_r=SXYSCBD2N5DJG4GN7KBA&pd_rd_w=UALtz&pd_rd_wg=C7yDa&psc=1&refRID=SXYSCBD2N5DJG4GN7KBA> > look > like an amazing option for people with hand troubles. I haven't bought this > but the reviews are amazing. > Yes the roller mice are amazing but only if you use a traditional keyboard/desktop environment. I'm always on a laptop and it's probably just my clumsiness but really count on wireless mice and headsets. Back when I was using a wired headset, a replace it about every 3 to 6 months because I was always rolling over the cord with my chair. At 150 bucks a pop, that gets expensive really fast. A $200 wireless headset is so much more convenient especially when you take a bio break and are reminded to take your headset off about 6 feet from the computer. > > Foot pedals > <http://www.gamingmouse.com/ergonomics/usb-foot-pedals/omnipedal-quad/> can > be used to replace some keyboard functionality, taking the load of of hands > and arms. I haven't bought this but it looked the most promising in my > research (also has the max pedals I've seen which is 4). > I'm never try foot pedals. Among the other Crips, some people love them, other people hate them. > There is also some promising looking (but still young) eye tracking mouse > technology > <http://www.pcworld.com/article/3014523/peripherals/tobii-eyex-review-the-eye-mouse-is-magical-but-just-not-for-everyone.html>. > > I think there are more recent models than in that article, but that article > has a video which demonstrates. > I think the eye tracking mouse technology is very impressive. I'm looking forward to when it becomes a work tool, and not a science project. > > Between eye tracking and foot pedals you could replace the mouse > completely (instead of using the roller mouse option). After that you'd > still be at the mercy of the speech recognition for the rest of the > keyboard. > And right there, you just express the classic misunderstanding about speech recognition. It is not a replacement for the keyboard. It's a totally different interface. You don't spell out the letters. You don't try to smooth the shift key by voice. You want to say short phrases that mean something in the context of the application. For example, you should be able to say "leave Mark, move down 10, indent right" or, in a programming context, "add argument to this method, no, third argument". As an aside, I've often thought that no would be a great modifier for speech recognition commands. It would mean you did the last command wrong, put yourself back in that context and interpret the next command in that context. > > Anyway, just curious and hopefully technology keeps improving to mitigate > your disability. > We have the technology to make much better accessibility interfaces than we do. There are three impediments to these improvements. First, the lack of acknowledgment that a GUI interface is not the place to put in accessibility. By the time you reach the GUI, you've lost much of the meta-information necessary to make a proper accessibility interface. Second, misunderstandings like yours that make it difficult for people with hands and eyes to be able to think about interfaces that don't use hands or eyes. In the third is the arrogance that lets developers justify making accessibility impossible because "there aren't that many disabled people using our product". To which I say politely "wait until you age". Internally I'm saying something closer to "F-U A-H, who the hell are you to decide whether or not I can use the same online services/tools/whatever you do just because my hands don't work." I am an advocate for not letting most developers create accessibility interface because they don't do the right thing. In a nutshell, we need the ability to build our own interface through an API that lets you access have read or write access to any of the internal state for data. If you want to get a feel for experiencing a different type of interface, I sometimes suggest to people that they should wear a blindfold or heavy gloves when they work. The gloves will give you the clumsiness that I experience and may help you with some insight into the challenges I face. I have an figure out a nondestructive way of letting you experience the pain but then again, I'm not sure I want you to experience the pain. --- eric > >> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "leo-editor" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to leo-editor+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to leo-editor@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/leo-editor. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
