stankuli%umass-cs.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa (03/28/84)
From: Stan Kulikowski <stankuli%umass-cs.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa> TODAY I RECEIVED A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION AS FOLLOWS: Amherst Regional Jr High I have a student who is learning to use an IBM Display Writer System. He only has one hand and we think he will need to master word processing for his educational career. This is a fairly new machine (about 1982) and has detachable keyboard as shown: .-----------------------------------------------. : @@@@ : : @@ OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO @@@@ : : @@ OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO : : @@ OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO @@@@ : : @@ OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO @@@@ : : OO XXXXXXXXXXXXXX OO : :-----------------------------------------------: on the left and right are function keys which need to be held down simultaneously with another key in the central area. A person with only one hand cannot reach these Any ideas you have to modify this would be appreciated. THERE ARE A COUPLE APPROACHES THAT SEEM FEASIBLE, GIVEN THAT THE SCHOOL MAY NOT WANT TO INVEST IN A PROSTHETIC KEYBOARD: >> THE SPECIAL FUNCTION KEYS ON THIS KEYBOARD BE REPLACED WITH ONES THAT MECHANICALLY LOCK. THE KEY TRONIC CORP (SPOKANE,WA.) PROVIDE REPLACEMENT KEYBOARDS FOR APPLE-II AND IBM-PC WITH LOCKING SHIFT AND CTRL KEYS. >> SOME TEMPORARY ATTACHMENT TO LAPBOARD WHICH HOLDS THE SPECIAL FUNCTION KEYS >> WILL THIS WORD PROCESSOR ALLOW KEY BINDING SO THE SPECIAL FUNCTIONS CAN PUT WITHIN SINGLEHAND REACH I WILL INVESTIGATE THE LAST POSSIBILITY-- ANYONE KNOW OF ANY IMPLEMENTATION OR ALTERNATIVES TO THESE? I ONCE SAW AN APPLE PROGRAM FOR ONE-HANDED WORD PROCESSING. AM INTERESTED IN ALTERNATIVES THAT ARE NOT MACHINE-SPECIFIC. THIS KID AND AND OTHERS WITH SIMILAR ABILITIES WILL NEED TO MOVE FROM MACHINE TO MACHINE AS FREQUENTLY AS THE REST OF US. stan
hamilton@uiucuxc.UUCP (04/08/84)
#R:sri-arpa:-39900:uiucuxc:34500005:000:182 uiucuxc!hamilton Apr 6 17:51:00 1984 is the user one-HANDed, or one-ARMed? if the former, you could easily make a simple prosthesis. all you need is a finger, right? imagine something that would work like a bayonet.