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Appreciating accessibility with a broken collar bone

erresen.github.io

11–19 of 19 posts

Re: Appreciating accessibility with a broken collar bone

#13

I don't think I've ever used them personally, but this is exactly the use case for "sticky keys" -- being able to press and release the modifier key (Ctrl, Alt, Shift) and have it remain "active" until another key is pressed. It's an available option on Win, Mac, and should be there in most Linux distros as well. But that said, I definitely agree with the author that making your keyboard shortcuts customizable is a v…

Funny I broke my arms a couple months ago and wish I had known this. I put two keyboard on my desk and was incredibly annoyed when I found out I could chord keystrokes together across keyboards.

Re: Appreciating accessibility with a broken collar bone

#14
A programmer friend of mine broke his arm dirt biking. We took an old Kinesis Freestyle and mounted one side to a tripod with a ball joint. We were able to turn one half of the keyboard on its side so his wrist did not need to face down, which was impossible. It worked out pretty well from what I remember.

Also worth noting, I think most Kinesis keyboards have hardware key remapping. The Advantage definitely does. It's wonderful to not need to rely on software to get your keyboard to do something unusual.

Re: Appreciating accessibility with a broken collar bone

#15

I don't think I've ever used them personally, but this is exactly the use case for "sticky keys" -- being able to press and release the modifier key (Ctrl, Alt, Shift) and have it remain "active" until another key is pressed. It's an available option on Win, Mac, and should be there in most Linux distros as well. But that said, I definitely agree with the author that making your keyboard shortcuts customizable is a v…

this is really where uhk.io shines.

Easily programmable, multiple layers, easy macros, absolutely wonderful. I wish they made a mouse.

Re: Appreciating accessibility with a broken collar bone

#16
Thanks for the comments. It’s good to hear I’m not the only one who’s suffered this. I ended up writing most of that blog post on my phone as it’s actually more comfortable to type on at the moment than my keyboard.

I’m getting better though. I think I’m 4 weeks in now. I have better mobility and can type two handed for short periods. I’m not looking forward to the potential future complications though. Arthritis is not something I want so I’ll discuss with the doctor at my follow up in a couple of weeks.

Re: Appreciating accessibility with a broken collar bone

#17
Short-term and long-term disabilities really really change methods which people interact with the technology.

One pathway most people forget is their voice. Smartphones have caught up with dictation through voice but not in voice control. iOS has made some headway.

For personal computers I use the following project to augment my workflow by voice.

https://github.com/dictation-toolbox/Caster

Re: Appreciating accessibility with a broken collar bone

#18

Tangentially, I did not fully appreciate the usefulness of pinch/zoom resizable web pages until I was recovering from eye surgery. Sites that did not allow the page to be resized (on my phone) might as well have been blank.

I don't understand why all of the mobile browsers still allow sites to prevent zooming. It makes no sense.
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