Hi, Chris!
 
My name is Inda Immega and I am a computer geologist.  I have
taught literally hundreds of people to use computers but
I have never had so challenging a learner as my Mother-in-law.
She has been diagnosed with PD and is motivated to learn to use
a computer because of the weakness and lack of control of her
hands and fingers.
 
I have found the mouse, in all of its manifestations (Mac and
PC) to be a dead loss for her. I have good resources for such
things and have tried all manner of ergonomic pointing devices.
The problem seems to be that she cannot coordinate the idea
of motion of the pointing device with motion of the cursor.
 
Fortunately, there is VERY LITTLE in Windows that will not work
with keyboard commands -- and since M. is a good typist and
learns things quickly, things have progressed much better
since we gave up the mouse almost completely.
 
The other thing that has been difficult to teach is the idea of
how electronic documents work.  It is hard for her to grasp
that something scrolled off the screen is still there.  It is
hard for her to understand that moving the cursor back through
the text is different from backspacing -- insertions and deletions
within existing text were difficult to envision.  She understands
intellectually, I think, but not mechanically.  The best thing
that has worked so far is is printing out a document in big
type, then cuting it apart to show the effect of insertions
and deletions, covering up part of it to show scrolling.  We
are making progress here, too.  She can now write and print
letters on her own and has resumed her correspondence with
friends and relatives.
 
There are lots of wonderful programs around, such as the ones
you mention, and lots of machinery (eyeball trackers, voice
control, footpads, etc.) but a lot of them are not as useful as
one might want.  I think it comes down to keeping things as
simple as possible and adding hw and sw components as they best
benefit the person who is trying to communicate.  Because many
things will be sub-optimal, it is probably a good stategy to
borrow and try things before putting a lot of resources into
them.
 
You might also be interested in some of the publications and
letters from the SOREHAND listserver -- they are concerned
with repetitive stress injury and ergonomics, and talk a lot
about things that might make computing easier:
 
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---
None of this represents professional advice or endorsement of
any product or service.  Opinions are my own and do not
necessarily reflect policies or holdings of my employer.
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Inda Immega, Pecten International Co.                   [log in to unmask]
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