Easy to Use Mice for Handicapped Persons?

Gavin Miller asks: "I've got a good friend with a disease that limits the use of his limbs, mainly his fingers. He says he can move a normal mouse but is no longer able to click. Does anyone know of input peripheral options that might be easier for him to use? I don't know exactly how much movement he does have in his fingers, or what he can or cannot do. I'm simply looking for some options that he can look into. Thanks!"

Comments

Tried a Mac mouse?

[leonbrooks]

That's nearly too easy to click, and with one of the plastic covers to return it to normal size, easy enough to handle as well.

apple mouse?

[amorico]

The apple mouse does not have any buttons and can easily be clicked with handscale motions.
Apple keyboard and mouse

The wireless mouse has a single button that makes it easy and comfortable to use, regardless of the size of your hand. Whether you have a light touch or a heavy hand, the thoughtful click-force adjustment feature makes it more customizable. And the optical engine provides accurate and responsive cursor movement unhampered by performance-inhibiting dirt and dust buildup.

Re:apple mouse?

[ottothecow]

I second the mac optical mouse (maybe not the wireless one).

You dont click a button, you just push down in the entire top of the mouse...its annoying to me (as well as the lack of right click and wheel) but it sounds just right

Re:apple mouse?

[neilsly]

as an aside - an apple USB pro mouse (the ones being discussed above) *will* work with Windows XP - by default every click is a left click.

Touchpad

[AuMatar]

He might be better off with a laptop style touchpad. Especially if you can find one thats pressure sensitive (heavy pressure=click).

Re:Touchpad

[nocomment]

I used to have a friend who was a quadrapolegic(sp?) and he used a laptop with the stick mouse. He used some arm attachement dealy with a pencil looking thing attached to it.

Trackball?

[lobsterGun]

I don't know the extent of his disablity, but a trackball might be an easier solution.

windows assist and voice

[ForestGrump]

microsoft put some disability assisy programs with windows. you might be able to use those as a free solution.

if you want something less "hands on" try something like Dragon Naturally Speaking.

Re:windows assist and voice

[slinky259]

Or he could buy a Mac... Tiger's going to have voice support built in (to a greater extent than Panther does), and he gets the benefit (never thought I'd be saying this) of an Apple mouse.

~stephen

Another possibility: two "normal" mice

[leonbrooks]

Use one for moving, glue the other one down and glue paddles to the buttons to make them easier to hit.

If you glued the "button" mouse to a shim to tilt it up a bit, friend could even use the wheel by rolling the heel of his hand on it. If that's still too hard, mount a larger wheel in contect with the mouse wheel and roll that instead. You can also wire up nice big buttons across the standard microswitches.

These mice have two wheels, one of which doesn't click, which makes it easier to roll a wheel without risk of accidental clicking (a bane of MS mice).

Re:Another possibility: two "normal" mice

[Thing 1]

Using pedals of some sort might be helpful for Gavin's friend as well. Perhaps a click-less mouse driven by a hand, and a pedal for each foot to click left and right?

In fact, I'd like that, just because I can't stand the wasted energy moving from keyboard to mouse and back. (Developers: please always have keyboard shortcuts. Thanks!)

second mouse, other hand.

[gl4ss]

or wire a pedal to a second mouse's button(s).

takes a little tinkering, but might be the best.

Re:second mouse, other hand.

[Gavin Miller]

Sounds good....thats something I had thought about...However he is in a wheelchair a bunch....Dont know how easy that would work out for him...Im gonna talk to him tommorow afternoon and see if he thinks he could use any of these. Thanks, Gavin

Thanks for all the suggestions...

[Gavin Miller]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. I wondered about a trackball myself....I think a touchpad might work but I dont know how much pressure he can put with his fingers to move it/click...Ill definetly look into these. Thanks, Gavin

Re:Thanks for all the suggestions...

[krymsin01]

Ever think about a foot pedal? Don't know how good you are at fabrication, but it'd be pretty easy to make. Also, I'm sure someone makes this if you'd rather just buy it.

Re:Thanks for all the suggestions...

[DansnBear]

I work in a school for handicapped children, and deal with a lot of these types of problems with a few of my students. On easy solution I have found to be useful is Gus! Dwell Cursor:

Gus! Dwell Cursor provides a practical method of activating mouse button clicks (click, double click etc.) for users who have difficulty accessing standard mouse buttons. . . Move the cursor over the item you want to "click", and Gus! Dwell Cursor automatically does the mouse clicking for you!

It basically works by automatically clicking when the cursor "dwells" over an item on the screen. Speed and choice of right or left click can be selected using an on screen palate. Give it a try, it may be just what your looking for. BTW- they have a free trial on their site.

3M Ergo Mouse?

[Derek]

The 3M ergonomic mouse might help. It uses the thumb instead of the fingers.

http://www.3m.com/us/office/myworkspace/mos_ergo.j html

-Derek

Infogrip?

[pipingguy]

Infogrip has a few alternatives.

Mapping keyboard

[Pan T. Hose]

If your friend can use keyboard then it should be possible to map certain keys to produce mouse buttons events and press them with the second hand. I know that people are doing it for example to emulate three-button mouse using Debian on Mac with one-button mouse. Google for mouse button emulation. Alternatively, you can prefer a very simple, low tech, portable, fully hardware solution: open the mouse and replace button switches with pairs of wires e.g. using 3 pairs in the standard ethernet cable. Other ends of every pair connect to a convenient button, which could be even something big to press with a foot--an old electric guitar effect pedal could be perfect for that. It's hard to be more specific since I don't know what input devices does your friend use, but I would suggest either emulating mouse buttons in software or rewiring the hardware, which should be trivial given an easy to open mouse. Good luck.

Orin HeadMouse

[loomis]

http://orin.com/access/headmouse/index.htm

-Wireless Operation
-No Cumbersome Head Mounted Apparatus
-Pixel Precise Pointing, CAD Ready
-Operates in Conjunction With or Replaces Standard Desktop Mouse
-USB Mouse Interface

The HeadMouse replaces a mouse for people who cannot use their hands. It sits on top of a computer monitor or laptop and measures the user's head movements.

Unfortunately I can't find pricing anywhere.

Loomis

Don't we have enough experimental mice already?

[foniksonik]

Early today I read about mice being grown for Nicotine Addiction studies... Now they're growing them for Handicap people?

What do Handicap people need with experimental mouse varieties? Isn't the stem cell research enough for these people... first the parking spots, now their own breed of mouse.. jeeezzzz.. they aren't THAT special

review of the headmouse

[loomis]

I found a review:

http://www.ace-centre.org.uk/headpointers/headdeta il.asp?ID=14

Unfortunately I think this unit is pricey. The review does mention other alternatives by name, so that might be helpful as well.

Loomis

if we tell you this....

[Anonymous Coward]

If we solve this problem for you, you're just going to come back and ask us what the most effective was is for him to pleasure himself because of all the great pr0n he now finds with his newfound clicking abilities.

Man, you give someone and inch, they take a mile. :)

Touchpad / Mouse Combo

[nz17]

I'd say go with a touchpad and mouse combo. That way he'd have the somewhat insensitive movements of a mouse, and the sensativeness of a touchpad's clicks.

Penny + Giles trackball

[ScrappyLaptop]

P&G make some wonderful trackballs with larger than normal balls and very "clicky" buttons. Their products are pricey but worth it, made for people with disabilities, industrial use and various armed forces.

Google it and look around on the hit pages for other makes as well as the resellers that carry P+G will carry other input devices for various disabilities.

That gyration mouse

[Free_Trial_Thinking]

No one yet mentioned the "Gyration ULTRA GT 30 CORDLESS MOUSE" which lets you move it in 3D. ..I think that's how it works. I've wanted one of these myself for a while.

How about two mice (Off topic: Ignore)

[Free_Trial_Thinking]

Warning: Offtopic somewhat

How about using 2 mice at once, one in each hand.? I've always wanted to set up a system like this. I wonder how hard that would be in Linux to set up?

Of course there'd be lots of decisions to make like how to handle focus, which mouse has priority, etc. Anyone know of any projects like this?

I'm not sure what the benefit of two mice would be but it would be neat to see 2 mice moving around the screen, 2 windows moving at once, etc.

Discuss, discuss!

Software utilities

[afd8856]

There are several utilities (one is built into KDE I think) designed for disabled people that should help with auto-clicking if the mouse is held in a place more than a few seconds.

Crayola Kids Trackball

[ankhank]

http://www.enablemart.com/productDetail.aspx?pid=6 65&dept=21&store=10

I bought this when Crayola sold it for kids, after my carpal tunnel got bad, surgery to correct it failed to help, and I had to find "the biggest trackball possible" and "something impossible for you to try to squeeze" -- and it's great.

Use "Froogle" for "Crayola trackball" and it'll also pull up a lot of related or similar devices.

My experience

[Anonymous Coward]

I suffer from CMT and have difficulty with using a mouse with my right hand ( I'm right handed). The best solution I found (after trying different types, tracker balls and pens) was to use the mouse left handed! Took all of 5 minutes to get used to it.

YMMV

Home-made Hardware Solution

[Tux2000]

I assume your friend uses an OS that supports using more than one mouse in parallel, i.e. Linux, MacOS X or recent versions of Windows (98 or newer, 2000 or newer). I assume that your friend can use at least one foot (or hand) to operate a foot switch.

You need two mice, one for the cursor movement and one for the buttons.

The "buttons" mouse should be a cheap one, preferably with a removeable ball and a long cable. The entire ball mechanics is no longer needed, just the electronics. You need one, two or three simple foot switches (temporary contact, i.e. contact is closed only when the foot switch is pressed down). Connect the two contacts of each foot switch in parallel to each mouse button. If your friend needs only one foot switch, you may hide the electronics of the mouse inside the foot switch. If your friend needs more than one switch, drilling some holes into the mouse case for headphone jacks (one for each foot switch) may be a good idea.

The "cursor" mouse can be nearly any mouse. If your friend can't move the mouse without accidentally clicking some buttons, open the mouse and cut off the little plastic pieces below the mouse buttons that press the switches on the electronics board.

Now your friend can use the "cursor" mouse to move the cursor, and the foot switch(es) to click. Even drag and drop should be possible, he just has leave one foot on the foot switch.

I admit this idea may look strange, but I think it is quite usable. Many secretaries use foot switches to control dictation machines. Think about driving a car. How do you accelerate? How do you stop a car? Planes are even directed with the pilot's feet, at least while they are not flying.

Tux2000

Re:Home-made Hardware Solution

[magefile]

When I drive, both my hands are busy (one for acceleration, one for steering), so I use something called a DigiTone to do turn signals, the horn, etc. It's basically a big-ass (3" to 6", depending on the model) button that you push and hold to do stuff; it goes through a musical scale (Do-Re-Mi) or you can just count beeps, and when it gets to the tone that you have hooked to the option you want, use it.

This would allow him to have right click if he wanted with just one switch (one tone=left, two tone=right), and it can be placed anywhere - I trigger mine with my foot, some do it with their knees, elbows, by leaning their heads to the side, whatever. Might be a bit tricky figuring out how to get the signal to the computer, but I'm sure someone's already done that part - he just needs to find the one that can do that.

easyball

[octalgirl]

Microsoft Easyball - we use them in spec ed classrooms all the time. Photo:

http://www.theapplecollection.com/design/pcproto /MicrosoftEasyball.html

Voice Navigation

[CyberRanger]

My previous VA rep was a quadriplegic. She had some use of her arms & hands, but using any kind of a mouse or track ball was a real challenge. For her quite often the issue wasn't clicking the buttons, but clicking when she didn't want to or movin' the mouse while clicking. Everything she tried required finer control than she could attain & the keyboard was even harder to use. Frankly, the solution for her would have been voice navigation. At that time OS/2 was doin' it nicely w/ 99.5% accuracy, but didn't support her applications. Neither Windoze or Linux supports it well. Ideally that would be the best solution.

4 possibilities for fingering-limited mousing

[nusratt]

search for...

1. "vertical mouse" -- the difference in the required finger motions might help.

2. "foot mouse" -- self-explanatory

3. "mouse keys" -- is the msft-win-specific name for a facility for replicating mouse functions via numpad keys.

4. touchpad -- either outboard, or integrated in keyboard. Mouse clicks are accomplished by tapping instead of pressing. Can even be used in *addition* to other mice, so clicking (tapping) could be shifted to the other hand. Some ergonomic keyboards (including those shaped similar to msft "natural" kbd) have a center-mounted touchpad, which could be used either one- or two-handed.

Other Input Options

[mteichrob]

You can check out this Slashdot article about a new input device called a nouse. A nouse make use of "Perceptual Vision Technology", which is "the technology for designing systems, referred to as Perceptual Vision Systems (PVS), that use visual cues of the user, such as the motion of the face, to control a program."

You just need an ordinary USB webcam and some special software (available here) to make it functional.

Matt