Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!craig From: craig@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca (Craig Hubley) Newsgroups: comp.cog-eng Subject: Re: one-finger keyboard Message-ID: <1989Oct14.094944.4304@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca> Date: 14 Oct 89 13:49:44 GMT References: <1989Oct6.221013.8269@agate.berkeley.edu> <1259@cbnewsj.ATT.COM> <783@cogsci.ucsd.EDU> Reply-To: craig@gpu.utcs.UUCP (Craig Hubley) Distribution: comp Organization: University of Toronto Computing Services Lines: 63 Checksum: 22219 >From: cs.utexas.edu!mailrus!ames!sgi!silvlis!mef > >I kind of figured a one-finger keyboard would be good for people >who (don't laugh, I'm serious) are handicapped, and hold a pencil >in an otherwise-useless hand, and move their whole arm to type, >or else hold the pencil (or other pointer) in their teeth. I dunno, I doubt formalizing this sort of an interface would help anyone. Nor do I think reinventing the Morse code, or refining keyboards for optimal use at 20 WPM by novices, and 0 WPM by experts, is of much use. It would be far more fruitful, I think, to investigate some totally new approaches like interactive video or even EEG reading (for the severely handicapped). >well the original poster please stand up and explain? Yes, please. >I'm interested in uses of computers to make life easier for >handicapped people. Is anybody else out there interested in this ? Yes, very interested. The problems of the handicapped are a superset of the problems of everyone else, so these issues are very important. >Have the particular human-machine interface problems >of these people been discussed here before? (I only dip into These people have lots of problems, but they share one *big* one: the user interface techniques of a program is *part of that program* instead of being an interchangeable part. If the handicapped, or anyone, could carry around their accustomed input and output devices, and 'jack in' to any computer program and use it, everyone would be better off for it. There would be no need for universal speech recognizers, totally standard user interface designs, expensive 'special' software 'for the handicapped' at an intense price differential, QWERTY keyboards (just use Dvorak, chord, one-finger, or whatever you like, and carry it around), mice vs. trackball and other absurd debates (probably the thing I'd like most to get rid of). Note that even the colorblind can be handicapped in today's interfaces. Replacing the 'ghetto solutions' applied to this area with new standards capable of handling the known approaches to I/O should be a priority. The new US Federal mandate to force all equipment purchased by the gov't to be 'equally accessible' to handicapped users may force the vendors to standardize an I/O port, like the 100 MHz cable between the NeXT cube and monitor, so that I/O devices can be completely modular. Of course, definitions of I/O streams would have to be abstracted and current standards like Xwindows would have to be drastically altered. Clearly just moving bitmaps around won't do. >comp.cog-eng occasionally, so maybe I missed it) (ON the other >hand, maybe this is the wrong group for such a discussion) I think you're in the right group, but I haven't seen much on this. Unfortunately. Craig Hubley -- Craig Hubley ------------------------------------- Craig Hubley & Associates "Lead, follow, or get out of the way" craig@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca ------------------------------------- craig@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu mnetor!utgpu!craig@uunet.UU.NET {allegra,bnr-vpa,decvax,mnetor!utcsri}!utgpu!craig craig@utorgpu.bitnet