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Ask Slashdot: Mouse/Pointer For a Person With Poor Motor Control
First time accepted submitter wb8wsf writes I recently found that a friend of mine is losing the ability to do fine-grained motor control. This means that writing, and mouse usage is going down hill.
Watching her was hard. I'd like to come up with possible solutions for her, but I'm not sure anything I know of such as a trackball, trackpoint, etc would be of much use. So far I haven't found much wandering the net. Any pointers or ideas would be most welcome.
Watching her was hard. I'd like to come up with possible solutions for her, but I'm not sure anything I know of such as a trackball, trackpoint, etc would be of much use. So far I haven't found much wandering the net. Any pointers or ideas would be most welcome.
Use a joystick fed into JoyToKey (Windows), or whatever Linux alternative you fancy. I've been using one for years. They're much more forgiving than a mouse, where a erroneous flick, or a flick to far, means you're practically starting over on trying to get to the button you need.
Took up laser eye tracking pointing devices & maybe a large-font/maybe Dvorak keyboard. I'd try but avoid a webcam solution-- they tend to be more pain than they're worth but you can't beat the price. Alternatively, simply take the mouse apart & superglue in a lead weight.
Concur. Father died of ALS. He was able to use a computer almost to the end with dragon. At the time it would quadrant the screen, so he could say like 1, then it would quadrant that and so on til it was close enough he could 'click', 'double click', whatever. Then he could dictate to type. It was a little slow going at times, but it got him online to email, or browse the web whatever, even 8 years ago.
I've got a friend in his 90's who is gradually losing motor control in his hands. it's a rubbish situation.
Anyway, about 5 years ago, I upgraded him from a standard MS optical mouse to a Logitech Trackman Wheel, which was a great help. Over the last couple of months, his motor control has deteriorated to the ponit where positioning the cursor is still ok. but pressing the right buttons is getting tricksy. So he's just upgraded to an Infogrip BigTrack trackball, where the buttons are out of the way of using the trackball. And it's been a great help. Not perfect, but a massive improvement. Each person's needs are going to be different. I'd suggest borrowing a trackball if you can, else buy one, and if it doesn;t work, ebay it, and try the next thing - the only way to find a solution is to try these things out in real life i think.
I get the impression we're in a nascent market - this stuff will likely become huge in the next 5-10 years, as a big chunk of the early comptuer users start hitting age-related motor loss.
Fine motor control? So gross is okay, can move arms or legs in a big way, but not fine finger movement? The general term is "Assistive Technology".
Use built-in system adaptations: change mouse sensitivity, keyboard repeat rate, use the numeric keypad to move the mouse. See Control Panel > Ease of Access Center in Windows. "Make the mouse easier to use" and "Make the keyboard easier to use". http://www.microsoft.com/enabl...
Tremors? http://www.steadymouse.com/ to dampen mouse movement.
Move the mouse using a trackball, can't click? Dwell clicker. http://sensorysoftware.com/mor...
Could move a game controller or joystick, not the mouse? JoyToKey http://www.oneswitch.org.uk/2/...
Can move head? Cameramouse, http://cameramouse.org/
Not use a keyboard? Probably up to using an "on-screen keyboard" and "switching". There's an OSK in Windows, 7 and later is OK, before then not so good. Many others, The Grid 2 is probably the best. http://sensorysoftware.com/gri.... You'll find at this point that everything is starting to look very "special needs" - the market usually addresses people with cognitive as well as physical problems, and starts to get called "AAC". But the technology is in there. You might also want to check out switching with an iPad/iPhone - recent iOS releases have fantastic switching capacity built in. Proloquo2Go is the most famous iOS app. It's expensive for an app, but it's dirt cheap compared to dedicated hardware solutions (like Stephen Hawking stuff)
Operate one control only? http://www.webbie.org.uk/onesw...
In the USA? Try finding your state's Assistive Technology Resource Center. In the UK? ACE Centre is good, http://acecentre.org.uk/.
Key thing: usually people put off acquiring and learning to use the technology until it is too late, because it's too depressing. The medical channels for getting this stuff are often slow (at least in my country, the UK) so if your friend has a progressive, degenerative disease, you might be best going with something you can get right away and is not too off-putting - if you get an iPad and use that, you can get it right now and it doesn't have as much stigma as an obviously medical device. Many of these conditions have a very limited lifespan, so you need to get something soon if it's going to be useful.
It's also worth noting that switching is really slow and painful for someone who is used to normal usage, and that the role of the main carer/partner is essential in successful adoption of this kind of technology.
(Quick whirlwind notes from a technical rather than medical guy, excuse any slightly-off nomenclature. And your friend might just need to adjust her Windows settings, and I've leapt to much more "advanced" systems than she needs - but you don't think a trackball will cut it, and she's clearly been normal up to now, so I'm thinking the worst...)
(2) Brush-up on keyboard navigation. Most desktop applications are good in this respect but many web pages are in the stone age.
(3) Tune the driver parameters.
(4) If the user has particular issues (which may not all be motor related) then focus on a 'way to do it'. For example a positive one-click even if the mouse button takes a hammering.
(5) There used to be special drivers but 5 years ago when I looked they seemed to be dying-out.
One of the issues is losing faith/confidence in one's own skills and getting more nervous/flustered. Try and find a fun and 100% no-problem' way of coaching them. Another issue with poke 'n hope is things go wrong and much more confusing. For example a double click or a right-click instead of a left click will start weird dialogs or actions. "Hey! I wandered over that email address and now it's asking me lots of questions!!" and so on. So it's up to your patience to reduce the stress. (And if you're trying to sort it out by phone then without something like Teamviewer you're going to get in a muddle and the user is going to feel a time-wasting idiot and failure.
Pretorian Technologies of Lincolnshire, UK http://www.pretorianuk.com/ specializes in computer devices for disabled, and semi-disabled users. They make a wide variety of trackballs, joysticks, mouse alternatives, big switches that can be activated by your elbow or knee, iPad switches, bluetooth linked switches etc.
Their devices are aimed at those with "limited hand control, fine and gross motor skill difficulties, poor hand-eye coordination, limited manual dexterity, repetitive strain injury, involuntary muscle spasms, spastic and flaccid paralysis, cerebral movement disorder or central neuromuscular disability and inflammatory or degenerative change"
From their website, http://www.pretorianuk.com/n-a...
The n-ABLER Trackball is the most adaptable Mouse Alternative on the market specifically designed to address the needs of computer users with limited hand control, motor skill difficulties, poor hand-eye co-ordination, lack of manual dexterity and involuntary muscle spasms.
In the USA, their products are available through InclusiveTLC.com .... not cheap (the anti-tremor joystick costs $440) but they look excellent for the application. a giant 3 inch diameter bright red switch that talks bluetooth (for the iPad, I think) runs about $150. see http://www.inclusivetlc.com/is...
There are many vendors who sell these devices, such as here: http://enablingdevices.com/cat...
For the specific need you mention, here's a start:
http://www.traxsys.com/Assisti...
My wife has Cerebral Palsy, with very poor fine motor control of her hands. She has two of these joysticks, both paid for with grants found for her from our local United Cerebral Palsy center (http://www.ucpsdtechcenter.org/).
It is an analog joystick - the same type used on power wheelchairs: the further you push the stick, the faster the cursor travels in that direction. It has buttons dedicated to single-click, double-click, and drag. It has an axis lock-out button which toggles cursor movement between horizontal-only, vertical-only, and any direction. It has a button which toggles cursor speed from very, very slow to very fast. All these functions are independent of PC hardware and drivers. It also comes with a selection of handles: large rubber ball, T-handle, and small knob.
There is also a trackball version with the same features, other than a very large ball intead of the stick.
It's USB and works with any OS. She has used it with Windows (3.11 - Win7), OS/2, OSX, and currently Linux (Fedora) without need of any device-specific drivers.
We also have a couple of USB and PS2 keyboards with keyguards which were also paid for with grant money.
When looking for assistive tech (AT) for the PC, you can pretty much ignore anything mainstream-PC-ish. There is a huge industry dedicated to AT for most all types of computer and communication devices for the disabled.
[Note: the following assumes you are in the USA. Other countries may have similar programs]
While much of it is pretty expensive, some of it is covered by health insurance. And as I noted above, there is often grant money available from many philanthropic entities (e.g. MDA, UCP, Easter Seals, Rotary Club, Big Brothers, etc.). Funding may also be available from various government programs for the disabled (e.g. Regional Center for the Developmentally Disabled, state Disabled Services, Dept. of Rehab, the VA, etc.). Also try checking your local colleges and universities for resources and referrals. Many of them have a Disabled Services office on campus.
Not impossible labs are a charity foundation that create devices and open hardware in this area.
Check out the eyewriter: http://www.notimpossiblelabs.c...
and the brainwriter: http://www.notimpossiblenow.co...
You can never know everything, and part of what you do know will always be wrong. Perhaps even the most important part.
I've got some trouble as well. Some things that are:
+ getting a keyboard without the numpad allowing mouse and arm more freedom of placement.
+ a split keyboard, I like my gold touch/tech?. Again more freedom and also forces better typing habits which means less small movements.
+ physical therapy
+ Logitech m series mouse. Must be wireless and have the super glidy scroll wheel.
+ a window organizer such KDE or Mac divvy to avoid click and drag of window sizings.
+ the vimium extension to chrome browser. Just press f and it makes a keyboard shortcut for every link on the page.
+ when it comes to Word and Excel I would say use medication to help. These two apps are hell for fine motor, only photo editing and other media apps are worse. I actually use power point for short docs and visio type diagrams because it requires less fine motor skills. I find people seem to like the slides better.. It forces you to be terse, which is a dying art.