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Hello all,
 
I want to thank all of you who responded to my request for information on
adapting Bill's PC to accomodate his tremors.  Here is a summary of the
suggestions, and the changes Bill has adopted:
 
1) Several people said they use trackballs instead of mice, and one man said
he uses an over-sized Kensington trackball.  Bill has been using a Tandy
trackball until now. Last week he bought a Microsoft EasyBall, and he likes
it very much.  The ball is the size of a softball, and it requires a firm
touch. It ignores tremors, and the cursor moves very smoothly across the
screen.  The EasyBall will plug into an extra serial port, without
interfering with the original mouse connection, so he can now use both the
EasyBall and his old Tandy Trackball without changing any settings.
 
2) One list member suggested striking the keys with the eraser end of a
pencil instead of the fingers. Bill says that works well, and the EasyBall is
working so well that he is  able to move the cursor with his left hand while
tapping the keys with the pencil in his right hand.
 
3) Another member advised using the arrow keys instead of the mouse for
cursor control, and the pencil technique is making that much easier for him.
 
4) Two people suggested using Voice input.  We haven't been able to try any
of the voice dictation programs yet, but we installed a demonstration version
of Voice Assist, which will make a PC navigate menus in response to voice
commands spoken into a microphone.  When it works, it's terrific! In our
first hour with it, VoiceAssist was not terribly consistent, but I think we
can learn how to train it.
 
5) One person suggested using the Microsoft Access utilities. We have been
using the "sticky keys" utility from  Microsoft, which lets Bill type key
combinations such as Alt-Esc sequentially instead of simultaneously, and that
helps quite a bit.  I do wish Microsoft would work in more accomodations,
such as a freely distributed macro program, though!
 
6) One member said he is using an ergonomic keyboard. Bill and I have been
wishing we could find a low-cost keyboard with over-sized keys, but they are
terribly expensive, more than $1,000.  That may explain why so many people
with hand problems are going into dictation programs and bypassing the
keyboard entirely.
 
Again, many thanks to all of you! You have helped us a great deal.  If any of
you want more information on the things we've been researching, we will be
more than glad to share the information  we've found.
 
Kay Peters
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